1. I sailed my ship in the dawn of life
And chose my heart to be my guide

2. It sailed like a palace on the waves
Filling space, filling the endless horizon

3. The sea bore it gently when it bore it
A world of lights and melodies

4. And imagination walked on life with its magic
And there was passion in the water and breeze

5. And the sands were fragrant blossoms
And the shore a painter's temple

6. And the spindrift were games and dances
And I was drunk with desire

7. I grasped pleasures heedlessly
And reveled in sins and misdeeds

8. Never content, fearing I'd be content
As though fulfillment would ruin me

9. As though it was my fate for my misguidance to last
As though it was my Lord's will my blindness endure

10. The years passed, following each other
While I was as if not in the years

11. My laughter like a wave, my sigh like light
My bloom like dawn, my features rugged

12. Until when old age called to me
And the hand of erasure neared my dreams

13. Reason shrieked at me, angry and mocking
“This richness was worse than nothingness”

14. You surrendered me to a misguided heart
So it led me astray and your surrender ruined me

15. Oh my companion, free me from the prison of sight
I am lost, I am hungry, I am thirsty

16. And reason wanted to steer my ship
To the shore in the surging sea of life

17. So I furled the flags of passion and left them
Forgetting they were even my flags

18. And I thought my pain had ended when it ended
But the ending was the greatest pain

19. And the road was fears and doubts
And I was in a flurry of darkness

20. I seek wealth though it was never my pursuit
And see beauty with a blind eye

21. And build, like people, an edifice of false glory
And wrap tight the cloak of pretense around my soul

22. So that I and the earth and sky
Became slaves of people, slaves of rubble

23. Then my imprisoned heart grew narrow and said to me
“Oh you villain, you killed my vitality!”

24. A dreamful wasteland is a laughing meadow
When dreams fade, meadows are tombs

25. Where are the eyes that melted me with their motions
And in their stillness my pains died?

26. I'd look from their sleepy lids at
Shade, echoes, and slumbering blossoms

27. When their branches refused to be lit by me
I was too weak to light their branches

28. Wine fills the cup but my craving
For the wine in the cup has passed

29. You surrendered me to misguided reason
So it ruined me and your surrender ruined me

30. Look, don't you see yourself in its delusions
More miserable and wretched than me in my delusions?

31. Who will buy from me, in a night of youth and passion
All of this money?

32. Oh my companion, free me from the prison of censure
I am lost, I am hungry, I am thirsty

33. Ask me not today about my lyre
My lyre is wood without melody

34. Oh poet, sing and give me back my youth
With your processions marching ahead of me

35. We met in youth and in passion
In the rapture of poetry and inspiration

36. And we will meet, though we part tomorrow
In love of Lebanon and love of Syria

37. And after forms perish, my soul and your soul
Will meet in the Sublime God

38. Greetings O gentleman of frankness, chosen one
Spiritual conqueror, daring one

39. Poet who trills in his melodies
The fragrance of spring and greenness of meadows

40. If you mention poetry, he is its prince
And if you mention glory, he is its pillar