Mournir Marzuq: Satirical Ode to President Mubarak

An Egyptian civil servant, Mounir Marzuq,  was sentenced to the maximum sentence of three years in jail in 2009 for a poem he wrote satirizing President Hosni Mubarak, who has been in power since 1981. The penalty for insulting a head of state in Egypt is a jail sentence of anywhere between 24 hours and 3 years. According to an article in the Huffington Post: Marzuq was jailed in Maghagha, southern Egypt, in May2009, after a colleague lodged a formal complaint about the poem deemed insulting to Mubarak, in power since 1981.

The case came to light after the penalised poet's brother appealed to the then, 81-year-old Mubarak for clemency, the independent newspaper, Al-Masri Al-Youm reported.

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/14/mounir-marzuq-egyptian-po_n_231535.html

Partial translation of the poem in English appears here.  The Arabic version follows.

Shine, shine whom you shine on all of us
Shine, shine whom you shine wherever you go
No one can shine like you shine
You made people feel confused and lost
You made people feel happy and lost

Mounir Said Hanna was hoping that his lines would be turned into a ballad: