1. The arbitrator was blessed with wisdom
Between the ruled and the ruler

2. I was sold cheaply out of ignorance
I do not sell summer with my pen

3. Cry out! Glory is unobtainable
None can attain it but the steadfast

4. The horse was darkened
By the terrified flash of its teeth in the night

5. If the sword were called savior again
It would come to be called rescuer of nations

6. In the West it has glorious feats
The likes of which among the Turks and Persians

7. Guest of Salonika, what pains you
In its prison but boredom, guest?

8. That guest has no shame
If you try to expel him, he resists

9. Yildiz has washed its hands of you
Yet its mention does not relieve your pain

10. You slipped from it, and it remains
A lesson for all people

11. If you wish to return to it
That is destined, by fate

12. Pasture of the beautiful gazelles
Precinct of the guards and the trusted

13. Tell us, is there in you
Wisdom higher than rulership?

14. Tell us, how did the aftermath
Of tyranny turn out but regret?

15. You dragged us, Abdülhamid
Though oppression did not last

16. You were like the days that intended
No harm but had no flair

17. It kept feeding the whale with corpses
Almost suffocating it with excess

18. Good riddance for the sea—
What blame in the land!

19. How many unlawful acts you legitimized
How many reputations you corrupted

20. You never cared for one bound
By ties of kinship—no compassion

21. The constitution supported you as victor
Yet you incited the army to blindness

22. The nation almost met its death by you
While still innocent

23. Many a night you lay in ambush
For him, watching for the flock’s guardian

24. Many a day you all but plotted
Against him, though no vengeful plotter

25. Did you reckon the people unaware
And forgot what happened long ago?

26. Or think the populace inclined
To serve eunuchs and servants?

27. Or imagine the army distant
While it is closer than a hand to a mouth?

28. It could not patiently bear discomfort
So came rushing on foot

29. Banner after banner
And regiment chasing regiment

30. It surrounded Yildiz and became
An unbroken bracelet for it

31. Your eyes saw its wrath
And wept, fearing harm, in blood

32. It tore the crown violently from you—
He who repels the people is torn down!

33. You remained with neither army nor banner
O felled by army and banner!

34. What you harbored spread
And we recognized oath-breaker

35. You were deprived of will, cautious
Yet still you fell asleep

36. Leave this world and its delights
I do not see it suiting old age

37. You are not of my mettle or pen
If my pen falters in battle

38. Say to those who would debate me
None but me trades in words

39. O Rashad, blessings
On the blessings you were granted

40. If that prisoner, what a
Blameless prisoner!

41. You housed him like Joseph
His excellence in prison is longstanding

42. Be for these people their Joseph
Saved from dearth and from dearth

43. You do not consent to hearing it said
A people roamed confused without a guide

44. You are the one we charge with its care
The Shura, from harm and anxiety

45. Take up the sword of your grandfather, Osman
Grandsire of the whites and the browns

46. Assume leadership over the nations
And hold fast to God’s rope

47. Your sight has recovered from blindness
And your hearing from deafness

48. May you remain, best of kings
Without worries or illness