هذا صبي هائم

تحت الظلام هيام حائر

Here is a wandering boy,

roaming bewildered beneath the darkness.

أبلى الشقاء جديده

وتقلمت منه الأظافر

Misery has worn out his new clothes,

and his nails have been pared away.

فانظر إلى أسماله

لم يبق منها ما يظاهر

Look, then, at his rags:

nothing remains of them to cover him.

هو لا يريد فراقها

خوف الفوارس والهواجر

He does not wish to part with them,

fearing the horsemen and the midday heats.

لكنها قد فارقته

فراق معذور وعاذر

Yet they have already left him—

the parting of one excused and one who excuses.

إني أعد ضلوعه

من تحتها والليل عاكر

I can count his ribs

beneath them, though the night is murky.

أبصرت هيكل عظمه

فذكرت سكان المقابر

I saw the framework of his bones,

and remembered the dwellers in graves.

فكأنما هو ميت

أحياه عيسى بعد عاذر

He seems like a dead man

whom Jesus revived after Lazarus.

قد كاد يهدمه النسيم

وكاد تذروه الأعاصر

The breeze almost demolishes him,

and whirlwinds almost scatter him.

وتراه من فرط الهزال

تكاد تثقبه المواطر

You see him, so utterly wasted,

that rainclouds almost pierce him.

عجبا أيفرسه الطوى

في قلب حاضرة الحواضر

How strange! Does hunger prey upon him

in the heart of the greatest of cities,

وتغوله البؤسى وطرف

رعاية الأطفال ساهر

and misery devour him, while the eye

of care for children remains awake?

كم مثله تحت الدجى

أسوان بادي الضر حائر

How many like him beneath the gloom,

sorrowful, visibly afflicted, bewildered,

خزيان يخرج في الظلام

خروج خفاش المغاور

ashamed, emerging in the dark

like a bat emerging from caverns,

متلفعا جلبابه

مترقبا معروف عابر

wrapped in his cloak,

awaiting a passerby's kindness.

يقذي برؤيته فلا

تلوي عليه عين ناظر مطران

The sight of him stings the eye, so

no onlooker's eye turns toward him. Mutran.

لو كان فذا إنما

هو عاثر من ألف عاثر

If only he were a solitary case! But

he is one unfortunate among a thousand unfortunates.

أنظر إلى اليسرى وكم

تدع الميامن للمياسر

Look to the left—how much

the right-hand side leaves for the left!

هذي فتاة حالها

أدهى وأفطر للمرائر

Here is a girl whose plight

is graver and more heart-rending.

هي بضعة لشقية

زلاء ما كانت بعاقر

She is a piece of flesh from an unfortunate woman,

a fallen woman who was not barren.

في مشيها وشحوبها

سيما لتربية العواهر

In her gait and her pallor

are signs of being reared by harlots.

وارحمتا لصباك يا

شبة الأماليد النواضر

Alas for your childhood, O

likeness of tender, flourishing shoots!

أكذاك يلقى في نجاسات

الموطيء بالأزاهر

Is it thus that into the filth

of the trodden ground, flowers are cast?

فإذا رخصن ألا كرامة

للصغيرات الطواهر

And if they are cheapened, is there no dignity

for the pure little girls?

أترى تثنيها ولفته

كل سائرة وسائر

Do you see her swaying, and how it draws

every passing woman and man?

هم يعجبون بلطف ما

تبديه من غنج الفواجر

They marvel at the charm of what

she displays of harlots' coquettishness,

وكأنهم لا يجزعون

لمثل هذي في الكبائر

and seem not to be alarmed

for one like her amid grave sins.

وكثيرهم مستهزيء

وقليلهم إن بر زاجر

And many of them scoff,

while the few, if virtuous, rebuke her.

لا يشعرون بأن تلك

من الفوادح في الخسائر

They do not realize that this

is among the most grievous losses.

قعدت شعوب الشرق عن

كسب المحامد والمفاخر

The peoples of the East have held back from

winning praise and glory.

فونت وفي شرع التناحر

من ونى لا شك خاسر

They have grown slack; in the law of strife,

whoever slackens is surely a loser.

تمشي الشعوب لقصدها

قدما وشعب النيل آخر

The nations march toward their aim,

forward, while the people of the Nile come last.

كم في الكناية من فتى

ندب وكم في الشام قادر

How many a young man in allusive speech

is gallant, and how many in Syria are capable!

لكنهم لم يرزقوا

رأيا ولم يردوا المخاطر

Yet they were not granted

judgment, nor did they venture into dangers.

هذا يطير مع الخيال

وذاك يرتجل النوادر

This one flies with imagination,

and that one improvises witty anecdotes.

جهلوا الحياة وما الحياة

لغير كداح مغامر

They have not understood life; life is not

for any but a tireless, daring worker,

يجتاب أجواز القفار

ويمتطي متن الزواخر

who traverses the expanses of deserts

and rides the backs of surging seas,

لا يستشير سوى العزيمة

في الموارد والمصادر

consulting nothing but resolve

in his comings and goings.

يرمي وراء الباقيات

بنفسه رمي المقامر

He flings, in pursuit of what endures,

his very self, with a gambler's throw.

ما هد عزم القادرين

بمصر إلا قول باكر

Nothing has broken the resolve of capable men

in Egypt but the word “tomorrow.”

كم ذا نحيل على غد

وغد مصير اليوم صائر

How long shall we put things off until tomorrow,

when tomorrow will meet today's fate?

خوت الديار فلا اختراع

ولا اقتصاد ولا ذخائر

The land lies empty: no invention,

no economic activity, no reserves.

دع ما يجشمها الجمود

وما يجر من الجرائر

Leave aside what stagnation makes it endure,

and the wrongs it drags in its wake.

في الاقتصاد حياتنا

وبقاؤنا رغم المكابر

In economic enterprise lies our life,

and our survival, despite the gainsayer.

تربو به فينا المصانع

والمزارع والمتاجر

Through it, among us, factories grow,

and farms and shops.

يا من شكا حالا نعاني

من عواقبها المخاطر

O you who lamented a plight—we suffer

dangers from its consequences—

لا والذي ولاك ناصية

البيان بلا مكابر

nay, by Him who gave you the forelock

of eloquence, with no gainsayer:

لم تعد ما في النفس من

شتى الهواجس والخواطر

you have not gone beyond what the soul holds

of varied misgivings and thoughts.

أضحي كما أمسي وبي

شغل مغاد أو مساهر

I pass the morning as the evening, filled with

the cares of an early riser or a night-watcher.

يا ليته الهم الذي

يفديه بالروح المخاطر

If only it were the concern that

a risk-taker would ransom with his life!

لكنه هم بما

يردي الأبي من الصغائر

But it is anxiety over those

petty things that ruin the proud-spirited.

قد تقتل الحشرات من

هانت عليه فلا يحاذر

Insects may kill someone

who deems them trivial and so takes no care,

ويعيش من رام المنيعة

دونها أجم القساور

while one lives who seeks the inaccessible,

though thickets of lions stand before it.

دعنا نفرج ما بنا

شيئا بمختلف المناظر

Let us ease what afflicts us

a little, with a variety of sights.

سر بي الدار التي

شيدت على كرم العناصر

Take me to the house

built upon the nobility of its foundations,

حيث المروءة بالفقير

أبر من أدنى الأواصر

where chivalry toward the poor

is kinder than the closest bonds of kinship.

ندفع إليها ذينك الطفلين

والله المؤازر

We shall deliver those two children to it,

and God is the helper.

من لي ومن لك يا أخي

بخزائن الذهب العوامر

Who will provide me—and you, my brother—

with brimming treasuries of gold,

نأسو بهن خلائقا

دارت عليهن الدوائر

with which we might heal people

on whom misfortune's wheels have turned,

ونشيد ما شاء السخاء

من المعاهد والمنابر

and build whatever generosity wills

of institutions and pulpits,

ونقول يا دهر احتكم

ما أنت بعد اليوم جائر

and say, “O Time, judge as you will:

from this day onward, you are no longer unjust!”

أسراة مصر وقادة الألباب

فيها والضمائر

O nobles of Egypt, and leaders of minds

within her, and of consciences:

ردوا عليها صبية

لعب الفساد بهم يقامر

restore to her the children

with whom corruption has played, gambling.

ألقى بهم في مطرح الأزلام

سكير وفاجر

They were thrown where divining arrows are cast,

by a drunkard and a libertine.

أو فرقوا سلعا وفرقهم

من الفساق تاجر

Or they were scattered as wares, and the one who scattered them

was a merchant among the debauched.

ما يصبحون غدا وكيف

مصيرهم بين المصاير

What will they become tomorrow, and how

will their fate stand among other fates?

من هؤلاء أيرتجي

خير لمصر أولو البصائر

From these, do they expect

good for Egypt, those endowed with insight?

هم في جماعتكم صدوع

فاجبروا والله جابر

They are fissures in your community,

so mend them, and God is the mender.