أعلمت من حملوا على الأعواد

أرايت كيف خبا ضياء النادي

Do you know whom they carried upon the bier?

Have you seen how the assembly's light went out?

جمع تساقوا كأس حزن بينهم

مالت رؤوسهم على الأجياد

A company shared a cup of sorrow among themselves;

Their heads drooped upon their necks.

يتطالعون إذا خطوا فكأنهم

يخطون في الأغلال والأصفاد

They look at one another as they step, as though they

Were walking in shackles and fetters.

يسمعون نحو منازل حجراتها

مغشية بمواكب القصاد

They listen toward dwellings whose chambers

Are thronged by processions of visitors.

متشابهات لا تغابر بينها

خافي المعالم عندها كالبادي

Alike, with no difference between them;

There, the obscure in outline is like the plainly visible.

ما مثل هذا اليوم يمحى ذكره

هو مثبت بصحائف الآباد

The memory of a day like this cannot be erased;

It is inscribed on the pages of eternity.

لا ينكروا الجرم الذي قد أجرموا

إن العصور له من الأشهاد

Let them not deny the crime they have committed;

The ages themselves are witnesses to it.

وعصابة حلت مكان عصابة

مثل الجراد أتى باثر جراد

And one faction has taken another faction's place,

Like locusts arriving on the heels of locusts.

يقتادها واهي العزيمة ظالع

منواصل الأبراق والأرعاد

A weak-willed, limping man leads it,

Unceasing in lightning-flashes and thunderclaps.

ثبت اللجاجة لا يدين لحجة

صعب العناد إذا انتحى لعناد

Firm in obstinacy, yielding to no argument,

Unbending in defiance whenever he turns to defiance.

إن سيق للإنصاف جد حرانه

وإذا يقاد فليس بالمنقاد

If driven toward fairness, his balking intensifies;

And when he is led, he refuses to follow.

هوي الدعاء فلا يمل دعائه

ألف النداء فلا يزال ينادي

He loves making appeals and never tires of his appeals;

Accustomed to calling out, he keeps on calling.

خافي المراد فلا يبين مراده

وأظنه يحيا بغير مراد

Obscure in purpose, he does not reveal his purpose,

And I think he lives without a purpose.

هي فتنة قد كان أكمنها المدى

واليوم تلك النار تحت رماد

It is a turmoil that time had kept concealed,

And today that fire lies beneath ashes.

جادت مواسمها وصوح نبتها

والآن آذن عامها بحصاد

Its seasons were bountiful, and its growth has withered;

And now its year has announced a harvest.

كاد النهى يزع الهوى لكنما

درس النهى وعدت عليه عواد

Reason nearly checked desire, but

Reason faded, and calamities assailed it.

إنا لفي زمن تساوى خيره

بالشر إن مضله كالهادي

We live indeed in an age whose good is equal

To its evil: its misleader is like its guide.

أرخوا قياد معاشر فاسترسلوا

ما مثلهم يمشي بغير قياد

They slackened the reins of certain groups, who ran unchecked;

Their like cannot walk without reins.

فليبرأ الآباء من أبنائهم

يا شقوة الآباء بالأولاد

So let fathers disown their sons;

Oh, the fathers' misery through their children!

تبكي لوادي النيل أعين أمة

جادت مواطرها فعب الوادي

A nation's eyes weep for the Nile Valley;

Their rainclouds poured, and the valley swelled.

لهفي على آمال قوم أخطأت

قد كان يعرف رأيهم بسداد

Alas for a people's hopes that missed their mark,

Whose judgment was once known for soundness.

هم طاردوا العاصين حتى أجفلت

عنه نعائمهم بطول طراد

They pursued the rebels until there fled

From it their ostriches, after long pursuit.

يا مصر قربك زاد قلبي حسرة

يا ليتني عنك استطال بعادي

O Egypt, nearness to you has deepened my heart's grief;

Would that my distance from you had grown long!

ما كنت أوثر أن ترى بك بعد ذا

كنس الظباء مرابض الآساد

I would not wish to see in you, after this,

Gazelles' coverts taken for the lairs of lions.

أو كلما راحت خطوب أو غدت

بكرت عليك روائح وغواد

Or whenever calamities leave at dusk or dawn,

Do evening and morning comers hasten upon you?

سبع وعشرون انقضت أعيادها

ومللت أنت تعاقب الاعياد

Twenty-seven years have seen their festivals pass,

And you have wearied of festival following festival.

ورأيت رواد الجمال تكاثروا

فسئمت فرط تكاثر الرواد

And you have seen the seekers of beauty multiply,

So you grew weary of the seekers' excessive thronging.

إن كان أغضى الدهر عنك لغاية

فستنقضي ويظل بالمرصاد

If time has looked away from you until a set term,

That term will end, and time will still lie in wait.

أو نامت الأحداث عنك ليالياً

فلرب نوم ينتهي لسهاد

Or if misfortunes have slept, leaving you alone for nights,

Many a sleep ends in sleeplessness.

تفدي ابن نيروز اعاديه إذا

عز الفداء ولم يجد من فادي

His enemies would ransom the son of Nayruz, when

Ransom grew scarce and he found no ransomer.

يا قوم رمسيس الألى سادوا الورى

لم يؤت سؤددهم سوى أجدادي

O people of Ramses, who ruled mankind,

None but my forefathers were granted their sovereignty.

متفرد حيّا وميتاً هكذا

فرد الثناء يخص بالأفراد

Peerless in life and death: thus

Singular praise is reserved for singular men.

حسدوه في عليائه حتى هوى

ثم استراحت أنفس الحساد

They envied him in his loftiness until he fell;

Then the souls of the envious found rest.

أمست سماء العز غير منيرة

بغياب ذاك الكوكب الوقاد

The sky of glory has grown dark

With the disappearance of that blazing star.

هيهات تدرك غاية هو سنها

قد جاز آماداً إلى آماد

How far beyond reach is the goal he set!

He passed from one far reach to another.

طرف تقاصر كل طرف دونه

وجواد فضل فات كل جواد

A noble steed beside whom every steed fell short,

And a courser of excellence who outstripped every courser.

سيف تلألأ ثم عاد لغمده

فلترجع الأسياف للأغماد

A sword that flashed, then returned to its sheath:

So let the swords return to their sheaths.

قل للذي يرتاد مثل سبيله

أعيت مالكها على المرتاد

Tell whoever seeks a path like his:

It wearied its master—how much more the seeker!

يزداد حسناً ما تكرر ذكره

ما كل حسن الذكر بالمزداد

He grows in beauty whenever he is remembered;

Not all of fair remembrance grow fairer.

أعدى العداة على الكرام حمامه

وليومه أعدى على الأكباد

His death is the fiercest foe of noble men,

And his day is fiercer still against the vitals.

يوم أعاد لمصر ماضي حزنها

لولاه لم يك حزنها بمعاد

A day that brought Egypt's former grief back,

Without which her grief would not have returned.

أحد أطاف على البلاد بشره

لما أطاف بواحد الأحاد

A Sunday that spread its evil over the land,

When it visited the unique among the peerless.

نزل العيون فدمعها متتابع

وثوى القلوب فبثها متماد

It settled in the eyes, whose tears flow unceasingly,

And lodged in hearts, whose anguish knows no end.

أربت شكايات الأنام فجاوزت

فيه مدى الأرقام والأعداد

The laments of humankind swelled, surpassing,

For him, the bounds of figures and numbers.

وتآلفت فيه النفوس على الجوى

اليوم زال تخالف الأضداد

And souls were united in anguish over him;

Today the discord of opposites has vanished.

أعزز على أنداده أن ينكبوا

منه بنكبة فائق الأنداد

How grievous for his peers to be stricken

Through him, by the loss of one surpassing all peers!

أبكيك مثل بكاء قومك نائياً

فحدادهم أبداً عليك حدادي

Far away, I weep for you as your people weep;

Their mourning for you is forever mine.

ووفاؤهم لك في وفائي مثله

وودادهم متواصل بودادي

Their loyalty to you has its equal in mine,

And their love is joined with my love.

ما كنت أغفل عن أياد طوقت

هذي البلاد وأنها لأياد

I would not overlook the favors that encircled

This land—and favors indeed they were!

الحر حر في الشعوب جميعها

من هجرة قد كان أو ميلاد

A free man is free among all peoples,

Whether he belongs by migration or by birth.

والمجد ليس مقيداً بمعاشر

والعز ليس موطناً ببلاد

Glory is not bound to particular peoples,

And honor is not confined to particular lands.

جاهدت في أعلاء مصرك جاهداً

حتى قضيت لها شهيد جهاد

You strove tirelessly to raise your Egypt high,

Until you died for her, a martyr to your struggle.

أثني عليك ولا يظنوا أنني

يكبو يراعي أو يجف مدادي

I praise you; let them not suppose that

My reed-pen stumbles or my ink runs dry.

إن يرمني هذا الزمان بكبرة

يإن المعاني لم تزل بقيادي

If this age should strike me with old age,

Yet meanings remain under my rein.

ركب سعى بك للفناء وإنني

أنا في رثائك كنت وحدي الحادي

A company of riders bore you toward extinction; and I—

In lamenting you, I alone was the caravan's singer.

فاذهب كما ذهب الربيع وقد كسا

خضر الربى موشية الأبراد

Go, then, as spring went, having clothed

The green hills in embroidered mantles.

إن ينفد الحزن فإن لي

قلباً كثير موارد الأمداد

If sorrow should run out, I still have

A heart with many wellsprings of replenishment.