1. No honor for one who does not keep company with the ignoble
So break your inkwells and pens in two

2. And have mercy on your tender youth
They cannot bear while you endure the pain

3. Why do you call to them while asleep?
Did you think your calls a lifeless thing could hear?

4. Deafness has plugged their ears
As if their ears were blocked to the brim

5. The people need enthusiasm
Or are you one who creates enthusiasm?

6. By God, if you were the son of Sa’ida
In manners, and Hatem Tai in nobility

7. And you combined Galen’s wisdom
And the knowledge of Aristotle and virtues

8. And you surpassed Euclid in discovery
And rivaled Edison in determination

9. And you took from this sea a pearl
And threaded them to it in order

10. And you unveiled to them the mysteries of existence
And made every remote thing come together

11. You would not be among them except accused
I have found the free man accused

12. They became disdainful of the world, no blessings
Did the world know them or curses?

13. So it is as if created for something else
And as if they chose nonexistence

14. Or do you not see them, whenever they affiliate
They rise neither as Arabs nor non-Arabs

15. They are not people of danger though they claimed
And the West is dangerous but did not claim

16. Cowardly in their ignorance
The strong become despised when divided

17. The sea is mighty when united
And you see it weakest when flowing always

18. And a fence does not cease to be impenetrable
Until part of it betrays so it collapses

19. And a people will never rise
As long as disagreement rules among them

20. Oh woe to the writer and what he endures
Among a nation that does not resemble nations

21. If he speaks his dignity is not safe
And silence, all silence, is sin if he conceals

22. He weeps so the heedless laugh at him
And ignorance smiles when the wise cry

23. It came but existence did not feel it
And it will pass while unaware

24. Nations marched to the heights necks raised
But you faltered and did not move your feet

25. It did not create a striking event in time
Remaining such that its track is no monument

26. It weakened so no wonder if subjugated
The lion, without his might, would be subjugated

27. I have seen the way of the universe
Like the sea where its whale eats its fish

28. No pity for one falling in battle
Or mercy by the wolf for the sheep

29. My friend, your passion pulls me
Until I feel a womb between us

30. It did not harm us though love brought us together
That unity was not also brought together

31. People read what you compose
In ink, and your brother reads it in blood

32. So vie for a soul with no return
The gnashing of fingers in regret afterward

33. You cannot change their nature
Until the earth becomes the heavens

34. She visited you, her meanings not violated
Dazzling, her light violates the darkness

35. My apprehensions about them came first
And I spoke when they fell mute

36. Measured next to their masterpieces
Their masterpieces are to it servants

37. Like the wind, I never saw before hearing it
A drunk made sober by its intoxication

38. It plays the deserts, a smooth brother
Makes the deserts forget the exquisite engraving

39. I took its passion so my ribs
Became like my ribs filled with wounds

40. The stars in their positions
If I wished I could bring them down word by word