1. ثلثهُ أشهر مرّت ونار ال

    وغى مشبوبة برّاً وبحرا

    Three months passed, and the fire of

    battle blazed on land and sea.

  2. وليل الحرب جن وطال حتى

    حسبنا الموت منه اجتث فجرا

    And the night of war fell and lingered until

    we thought death had uprooted dawn from it.

  3. واظهر الاتحاديون فيها رواغاً

    رواغاً ساسة الحلفاءِ غرَّا

    And the Unionists displayed guile in it—

    guile that deceived the Allied statesmen.

  4. بهم مكروا وقالوا قد لزمنا

    حياداً لا نرى منه مفرا

    They schemed against them and said, 'We have adhered to

    a neutrality from which we see no escape.

  5. وان ملنا فليس يكون الا

    اليكم ميلنا سرًّا وجهرا

    And if we incline, it shall be only

    toward you that we lean, secretly and openly.'

  6. كذا قالوا وانور كان سرا

    الى الالمان ضمهمُ اقرا

    So they said; yet Enver had secretly

    approved their joining the Germans.

  7. وفي استعداده للحرب معهم

    قضى التسعين يوماً مستمرا

    And in preparing for war alongside them,

    he spent ninety days without pause.

  8. واقحم قومه فيها اعتباطاً

    واوغرهم على الحلفاءِ صدرا

    And he rashly thrust his people into it,

    and filled their breasts with rancor against the Allies.

  9. وهاجوا الدب فانهمرت عليهم

    فيالقهُ من القوقاس همرا

    And they roused the bear, so upon them poured

    its legions from the Caucasus in torrents.

  10. ودارت بينهم حربٌ عوان

    تراوح سيرها مداً وجزرا

    And a war of repeated battles raged between them,

    its course alternating between flow and ebb.

  11. وبينا انورٌ يرجو انتصاراً

    اذا الاقدار قد رمقته شزرا

    And while Enver was hoping for victory,

    behold, the fates had looked at him askance.

  12. فحاق بجيشه الغازي انكسارٌ

    مريع بعده لم يلقَ جبرا

    So his invading army was overtaken by a defeat

    so dreadful that afterward it found no recovery.

  13. ودب اليه في القوقاس سوس ال

    خطوب وعظمه اوهاه نخرا

    And in the Caucasus there crept into it the woodworm of

    calamities, gnawing its bones and sapping their strength.

  14. فمن لم يقضِ في الهيجاء منهم

    وسهم الروس اخطأ منه نحرا

    So any of them who had not perished in battle,

    and whose throat the Russians' arrow had missed,

  15. فمن طما ولغبٍ ارهقاه

    وجوعٍ ما استطاع عليه صبرا

    died of thirst and exhaustion that wore him down,

    and hunger he could not endure.

  16. ومن لم تردهِ هذي البلايا

    هراه الزمهرير فمات قرّا

    And whoever these calamities had not killed

    was ravaged by the bitter cold, and died of cold.