تحية النصر.. وتهنئة الظفر

A Salute to Victory, Congratulations on Triumph¹

1. Iraq of the Two Rivers, you have risen high in rank,
   and your aggressor foe is humbled², humbled in disgrace.
2. So walk tall³, take pride in God’s victory, and send
   glad songs that ululate throughout our open space.
3. Yours is the victory, firmly upheld, at every hour,
   and not an instant does it stray from you, or turn away.
4. Heroic deeds, inscribed in a register
   of glories that have clasped time itself in their embrace,
5. and so the heights of honour long inherited are mixed
   with glory newly won⁴ that has soared up to the clouds.
6. You bring the sunrise of the Arabs back, time and again,
   whenever fate has flung us into darkness,
7. and rouse grey elders and young men from humiliation’s sleep,
   so they may take into their hands the rein⁵.
8. Congratulations, Iraq of glory, on a mighty victory,
   from which the light of dawn has shone out plain!
9. Majesty garlands it with pride,
   and awe has crowned it, in whatever place.
10. Congratulations, Iraq! That victory is yours,
    which mouths have strung like pearls⁶ in an ordered chain.
11. We congratulate your people, Arab in blood
    and Arab in feeling, and, add to these, in tongue.
12. From Somalia we send them, reeling with joy⁷,
    our congratulations, for our visions have come true.
13. For the Arab nation’s sons, wherever they may be,
    are one feeling that fills every heart the same.
14. We trail our robes⁸ in delight, and chant
    the anthems of heroism on our hills,
15. and we proclaim to all mankind that we⁹ have won
    by the grace of God, and not by human aid.
16. The cheers of our hearts flutter out in eagerness
    toward Saddam, the one who guards our sanctuary,
17. father of glories, leader of every free man,
    through whom Iraq has triumphed and been graced.
18. He calls for peace, and from a place of strength,
    to acquit himself of duty; and so he rose to a loftier place.
19. He called for reconciliation, generous and first to act,
    to spare the blood of those who wade into the war waged once again¹⁰,
20. to wipe the tears of the mother bereaved of her sons,
    and fill the hearts of the grieving with joy.
21. But Khomeini would not consent to heed
    the one who called for peace, who called to him with grace.
22. He would have nothing but fighting, with massed troops,
    with slaughter and with burning; and so it came to pass:
23. the shelling of installations, the killing of a bereaved mother
    whose sons had gone before her as a ransom for our sake.
24. The Muslims cried out: “Wake up!
    You will not enter the Gardens¹¹ through the fray!”
25. The voices of all who were jealous for Islam grew hoarse,
    and the handholds¹² that bound us together gave way.
26. People’s hearts were filled with despair,
    and they found no hour for their gloom to wane.
27. Ask the deluded man: for what did tragedies take place
    at which, before our very eyes, our forelocks have turned grey?
28. And for what did torrents of blood flow,
    with which you¹³ dyed the hillsides with a purple stain,
29. while your own people lie among them, dead and fallen,
    and captives who have met with tenderness at our hands?
30. And for what did you mass little children
    on the field of battle¹⁴, time and time again?
31. And where, one wonders, are the principles whose farces
    you used to recite, a deception in plain display?
32. Orphans, or widows, or prisoners:
    their plight speaks for them, as plainly as a tongue¹⁵ could say.
33. Such is vanity: when it swells
    within a man, it helps him down the evil way.
34. Did they suppose that they had overpowered us?
    Some supposing¹⁶ leaves you heir to shame.
35. They were moulded by nature on the worst of calamities,
    and guidance found in them no place to stay,
36. and none but we have curbed the bolting evil in them,
    and cut the fools off to the very last¹⁷.
37. Lions¹⁸ have risen from our hills,
    teaching them lessons none can come near:
38. lessons in defending the land,
    and honour too, which never shall be abased.
39. The eagles soared and destroyed them,
    and left them nothing standing, not a trace.
40. So do not be quick to lay the blame on us:
    it was they who refused both peace and safety.
41. A falsehood that hoped to find currency has been refuted,
    and the side of truth now stands protected.
42. And the sparrows warbled in delight
    at the dawn of the Arabs, when it broke as clear as day.

Published in the newspaper al-Thawra (Baghdad), issue 6911, 30 April 1989

English translation prepared by artificial intelligence and reviewed against the Arabic for accuracy of meaning and rhetoric.