| A restless lightning flashed in the water, | |
| waves surged and rolled in the water; | 1760 |
| a sweet scent wafted from the rose-garden of Paradise, | |
| the spirit of that dervish of Egypt appeared. | |
| His fire melted the pearl in the oyster-shell, | |
| melted the stone in the breast of Kitchener. | |
| He cried, ‘Kitchener, if you have eyes to see, | 1765 |
| behold the avenging of a dervish’s dust! | |
| Heaven granted no grave for your dust, | |
| gave no resting-place but the salty ocean.’ | |
| Then the words broke in his throat; | |
| from his lips a heart-rending sigh was loosed. | 1770 |
| ‘Spirit of the Arabs’, he cried, ‘arise; | |
| like your forebears, be the creator of new ages! | |
| Fouad, Feisal, Ibn Saoud, | |
| how long will you twist like smoke on yourselves? | |
| Revive in the breast that fire which has departed, | 1775 |
| bring back to the world the day that has gone. | |
| Soil of Batha, give birth to another Khalid, | |
| chant once more the song of God’s Unity. | |
| In your plains taller grow the palm-trees; | |
| shall not a new Farouk arise from you? | 1780 |
| World of musky-hued believers, | |
| from you the scent of eternal life is coming to me. | |
| How long will you live without the joy of journeying, | |
| how long with your destiny in alien hands? | |
| How long will you desert your true station? | 1785 |
| My bones lament in the deep like a reed-pipe; | |
| are you afraid to suffer? The Chosen One declared, | |
| "For man the day of suffering is the day of purification." | |
| ‘Cameleer, our friends are in Yathrib, we in Nejd; | |
| sing that song which will stir the camel to ecstasy. | 1790 |
| The cloud has rained, grasses have sprouted from the earth, | |
| it may be that the camel’s pace grows languid. | |
| My soul wails of the pain of separation; | |
| take the road where fewer grasses grow. | |
| My camel is drunk with the grass, I for the Beloved; | 1795 |
| the camel is in your hands, I in the hands of the Beloved. | |
| They have made a way for waters into the desert, | |
| upon the mountains the palm fronds are washed. | |
| Yonder two gazelles one after the other— | |
| see how they are descending from the hill, | 1800 |
| for a moment drink from the desert spring | |
| and then glance upon the traveller. | |
| The dew has softened the sands of the plain like silk, | |
| the highway is not hard for the camel: | |
| the clouds ring on ring like the wings of the partridge— | 1805 |
| I fear the rain, for we are far from the goal. | |
| Cameleer, our friends are in Yathrib, we in Nejd; | |
| sing that song which will stir the camel to ecstasy.’ |