الهلال
أحمد شوقي
سنون تعاد ودهر يعيد * لعمره ما في الليالي جديد
أضاء لآدم هذا الهلال * فكيف تقول الهلال الوليد
نعد عليه الزمان القريب * ويحصي علينا الزمان البعيد
علي صفحتيه حديث القري * وأيام عاد ودنيا ثمود
وطيبة أهله بالملوك * وطيبة مقفرة بالصعيد
يزول ببعض سناه الصفا * ويفني ببعض سناه الحديد
ومن عجب وهو جد الليالي * يبيد الليالي فيما يبيد
يقولون يا عام قد عدلت لي * فيا ليت شعري بماذا تعود ؟
لقد كنت لي أمس ما لم أرد * فهل أنت لي اليوم ما لا أريد
ومن صابر الدهر صبري له شكي في الثلاثين شكوي لبيد
ظمئت ومثلي بري أحق * كأني " حسين " ودهري " يزيد "
تغابيت حتي صحبت الجهول * وداريت حتي صحبت الحسود
The Crescent Moon
By Ahmed Shawqi
Years merely returning and time repeating itself
I swear by your life there is nothing new in this world
This very crescent moon provided light for Adam
So how can we say it is a "New Moon?"
We count the months by it
But it counts eons by us
On it's face is recorded the lives of by gone ages
The days of 'Ad and Thamud
It saw Thebes bustling with Kings
And it sees Thebes desolate in the desert
It's rays wear away stone
And it's rays destroy Steel
And strange, since it is the father of Night,
That nights are amongst the things it obliterates
They say a new year has come upon me!
But would that I knew what you will bring
Yesterday you brought only that which I did not wish
So will you once again bring me what I do not wish?
Indeed anyone who has had to bear patiently the agonies of time
Would complain in his thirties the complaint of Labeed
Indeed I am thirsty and such as me has a right to be quenched
Yet I am like Husain and my time is that of Yazeed
I have feigned ignorance to the extent that the ignorant acompany me
And I have so hidden my grief that the envious surround me.