1. مَاذَا تَصَبَّاكَ مِنْ حَالٍ تُجَدِّدُهَا

    عَنْ عَهْدِ عَنْتَرَةَ العَبْسِيِّ فِي القِدَمِ

    What has beguiled you in the life you revive

    From the ancient days of Antarah al-Absi,

  2. وَأَنْتَ فِي بَلَدِ الأَنْوَارِ لا أَثَرٌ

    فِيهِ يُذَكِّرُ عَصْراً بَاتَ فِي الظُّلَمِ

    While you dwell in the land of lights, with no trace

    There to recall an age that lay in darkness?

  3. هَلْ مُلْتَقًى يَجْمَعُ الروحَ الَّتِي رَجَعَتْ

    أَدْرَاجَها وَالَّتِي تُزْجَى مِنَ العَدَمِ

    Is there a meeting place uniting the spirit that retraced

    Its steps, and the one ushered forth from nothingness?

  4. وَمَا احْتِيَارُكَ عَبْداً مِحْرَباً خَشِناً

    مِنَ البَدَاوَةِ فَظَّ اللَّوْنِ وَالأَدَمِ

    And what perplexes you about a slave, warlike and rough,

    From desert life, coarse in complexion and skin,

  5. مُهَيَّماً بِفَتَاةٍ بِنْتِ سَادَتِهِ

    يَشْكُو هَوَاهُ بِمَنْظُومٍ مِنَ الكَلِمِ

    Love-stricken for a maiden, the daughter of his masters,

    Who laments his love in words woven into verse?

  6. يَحْكِي الحُكَاةُ لَنَا عَنْهُ تَوَغُّلَهُ

    فِي الفَتْكِ بِالنَّاسِ فَتْكَ الآكِلِ النَّهِمِ

    The storytellers tell us how deeply he plunged

    Into slaughtering people, with a ravenous eater's violence,

  7. وَلِينَهُ فِي تَصَابِيهِ وَغِلْظَتَهُ

    فِي مَلْعِبِ المَوْتِ بَيْنَ السُّمْرِ وَالخَذُمِ

    And of his tenderness in love-play and his harshness

    On death's playing field, among brown spears and keen swords.

  8. فَهْوَ المُتَيَّمُ يَسْتَقْضِي لبَانَتَهُ

    وَهْوَ المُكَافِحُ حُبَّ القَتْلِ وَالنِّقَمِ

    For he is the love-enslaved man seeking his desire's fulfillment,

    And the fighter driven by love of killing and vengeance.

  9. ذَاكَ الَّذِي قَالَهُ عَنْهُ الرُّوَاةُ فَهَلْ

    بَدَا مَزِيدٌ لِفِكْرِ البَاحِثِ الفَهِمِ

    That is what the narrators said of him; has

    Something more dawned on the discerning scholar's mind?

  10. حَيَّاكَ رَبُّكَ يَا مَنْ قَامَ يُنْصِفُهُ

    بِالعِلْمِ مِنْ جَهْلِ سُمَّارٍ وَمِنْ تُهَمِ

    May your Lord bless you, you who rose to do him justice,

    Through knowledge, against nighttime talkers' ignorance and accusations.

  11. مَا كَانَ عَنْتَرَةٌ فِي القَوْمِ غَيْرَ فَتىً

    يَرَى لَهُمْ مَا يَرَاهُ قَادَةُ الأُمَمِ

    Among his people, Antarah was but a young man

    Who envisioned for them what the leaders of nations envision.

  12. إِنْ أَمْكَنَ الحُبَّ مِنْهُ حِينَ خَلْوَتِهِ

    فَأَسْمَعَ النَّاسَ فِيهِ أَشْوَقَ النَّغَمِ

    If he gave love power over himself in his solitude,

    And made people hear its most yearning melodies,

  13. فَإِنَّ مَا كَانَ يَبْغِيهِ لأُمَّتِهِ

    أَسْمَى أَمَانِي حُرٍّ غَيْرِ مُتَّهَمِ

    What he sought for his nation was nonetheless

    The loftiest hopes of a free man beyond suspicion.

  14. سَقَى هَوَى عَبْلَةٍ مِنْ مَاءِ أَدْمُعِهِ

    وَكَادَ يُرْوِي الفَلا مِنْ أَجْلِهِمْ بِدَمِ

    He watered his love for Abla with the water of his tears,

    And almost watered the desert wastes with blood for their sake.

  15. وَالحُبًّ أَلْزَمُ لِلأَرْوَاحِ مَا عَظُمَتْ

    وَقَدْ يَكُونُ لَهَا أَدْعَى إِلَى العِمَمِ

    And love is all the more essential to souls as they grow great,

    And may draw them still more toward full stature.

  16. فَإِنْ ظَفِرْتَ بِعِزْهَاةٍ وَمَنْصِبُهُ

    فِي المَالِكِينَ فَتِلْكَ النَّفْسِ فِي الخَدَمِ

    So if you find a man averse to love, though his station

    Is among masters, that soul is among servants.

  17. أَرَيْتَنَا مِنْ فَتَى عَبْسٍ حَقِيقَتَهُ

    حَقِيقَةَ المَرْءِ لَمْ يُوصَمْ وَلَمْ يَصِمِ

    You have shown us the true nature of the young man of Abs:

    The true nature of a man neither blemished nor blemishing;

  18. حَقِيقَةَ البَدَوِيِّ الحُرِّ مُبْتَغِياً

    لِقَوْمِهِ غَيْرَ بَاغٍ أُلْفَةَ الرَّحِمِ

    The true nature of the free Bedouin, seeking

    For his people, without aggression, the bonds of kinship.

  19. يُهْدِي لِعَبْلَةً مَا يُوحِي الغَرَامُ لَهُ

    وَلِلحَقِيقَةِ وَحْيَ العَزْمِ وَالشِّمَمِ

    He offers Abla what passionate love inspires in him,

    And to truth, the inspiration of resolve and noble pride.

  20. وَإِنَّمَا سُؤْلُهُ إِعْزَازُ مَوْطِنِهِ

    وَقَوْمِهِ بِاتِّحَادِ الرَّأْيِ وَالهِمَمِ

    His sole wish is to exalt his homeland

    And his people through unity of thought and resolve.

  21. فَإِنْ رَنَا وَهِلالُ الشَّهْرِ مُبْتَسِمٌ

    حَيَّاهُ مِنْ أَمَلٍ فِي الأُفْقِ مُبْتَسِمِ

    And if he gazed while the month's crescent smiled,

    He hailed it as a hope smiling on the horizon,

  22. مُنَبِّيءٍ بِسَنَاهُ عَنْ سَنَى قَمَرٍ

    مَاحِي الظَّلامِ نَبِيٍّ حَاطِمِ الصَّنَمِ

    Foretelling, by its glow, the radiance of a moon,

    A dispeller of darkness, a prophet, a breaker of the idol.

  23. فَيَا مُعِيداً إِلَيْنَا اليَوْمَ عَنْتَرَةً

    فِي يَقْظَةٍ شَابَهَا لُطْفٌ مِنَ الحُلُمِ

    So, O you who restore Antarah to us today,

    In wakefulness touched by the delicacy of dream,

  24. بِشِبْهِ مَا جَوَّدَتْ نَظْماً قَرِيحَتُهُ

    فِي خَيْرِ مَا جَوَّدَتْهُ أَلْسُنُ العَجَمِ

    With verse akin to what his poetic gift perfected,

    In the finest that non-Arab tongues have perfected,

  25. أَرَيْتَ مَنْ كَانَ يَرْمِينَا بِمَنْقَصَةٍ

    أَنَّا بَنُو بَجْدَةِ الأَفْلاحِ إِنْ نَرُمِ

    You have shown those who charged us with inferiority

    That we are masters of success, if we seek it;

  26. وَأَنَّنَا القَوْمُ نَسْتَبْقِي مَفَاخِرَنَا

    حَتَّى تُوَاتِينَا الأَقْدَارُ مِنْ أمُمِ

    And that we are a people who preserve our glories

    Until the fates favor us from close at hand;

  27. وَأَنَّ مَا بَيْنَ مَاضِينَا وَحَاضِرَنَا

    مِنَ العَلاقَةِ حَبْلاً غَيْرَ مُنْفَصِمِ

    And that between our past and our present

    The bond is an unbroken cord;

  28. وَأَنَّنَا أُمَّةٌ تَهْوَى مَوَاطِنَهَا

    حَتَّى عَلَى الذِّكْرِ مِنْ عَادٍ وَمِنْ إِرَمِ

    And that we are a nation in love with its homelands,

    Even in the memory of Ad and Iram;

  29. وَأَنَّ كُلَّ بَيَانٍ طَوْعُ خَاطِرِنَا

    وَنَحْنُ أَهْلُ بَيَانِ السَّيْفِ وَالقَلَمِ

    And that every form of eloquence obeys our thought,

    And we are masters of the eloquence of sword and pen;

  30. وَأَنَّ كلَّ فَتىً مِنَّا بِمُفْرَدِهِ

    شَمْلٌ جَمِيعٌ مِنَ الآدَابِ وَالشَّيمِ

    And that each young man among us, on his own,

    Is a whole assemblage of learning and virtues;

  31. وَأَنَّنَا لَوْ تَآلَفْنَا لِمَا عَجِزَتْ

    بِنَا النُّهَى عَنْ مَقَامٍ فِي العُلَى سَنِمِ

    And that, had we united, there would have been no failure

    Of our reason to win us a lofty station among the heights.

  32. فَيَا سُرُوراً بِذِكْرٍ أَنْتَ بَاعِثُهُ

    وَيَا أَسىً لِحِمَى بِالجَهْلِ مُنْقَسِمِ

    So, oh, the joy in a remembrance you revive,

    And oh, the sorrow for a homeland divided by ignorance!