1. I wish the one who made life beautiful
Had not drawn the curtains over its beauty,

2. But left it to dazzle minds, so no one
Could excuse themselves from attaining it.

3. How the hearts of youths crave its union,
Yet even the generous stint in granting it.

4. It draws him near through its right-hand doors
Then repels him through those on the left.

5. How often I said, “This matter is partly right,”
Only to find it, in experience, partly wrong.

6. And how often I was duped by its gods, and blamed them,
Then returned thirstier than I had been for them before.

7. I thought I was safe from its misguidance,
But what I thought misguidance was all of it.

8. Souls are tempted by their hopes
And remain preoccupied with those hopes.

9. My youth has gone, while I try to unravel its secret,
Perplexed by its essence and its course.

10. Until I saw the sun cast its light
On the land, above its plains and ropes.

11. And I saw the lowliest home a spider built,
Wrapped and garlanded in ropes,

12. Like the soaring castles with high domes
Looming over the land on their hills.

13. So I knew the soul aspires to the finest pearls
And silk just as it does to robes.

14. Your life is none but what you imagined it to be,
You are life, in your silence and speech.

15. I observed the doves in the ash-grey land,
And marveled at the state of people and theirs.

16. The thorns get the rose’s share of singing
And will later have its feeding in their care.

17. It sings while its hunters extend their nets,
So wondrous that it shows kindness to its killers!

18. I envied it for its safety and peace,
Wishing I were given the comfort of its mind.

19. And I made its way my own,
And wove my manners by its example.

20. If I were oppressed, I left its skies weeping for me
With their sun and crescent.

21. And I deserted its meadow, so its roses
Became to despair what thorns are to its thickets.

22. I scolded my soul when it inclined, like the others,
Away from the abundant waters of life to its swamps.

23. In forgiving the wrongdoer who harmed you is a merit,
Like extinguishing a fire once it has caught flame.

24. So train yourself, for life is short
To carry resentments as your burdens.

25. The days of youth have passed, unexploited,
Leaving my heart distraught over what it missed.

26. Their clock hands crept up on it, stealing away their remains
To their graves.

27. Of their pleasures, nothing remains but the memories;
Of their wine cups, only the clatter.

28. Of the wine itself just the aftertaste and must;
Of the gardens only their specter and ruins.

29. O paradise whose fruits were plucked untimely!
O bliss stripped of its raiment!

30. Nothing disgraced it but its fading,
And the blame is on fate for its fading.

31. A radiant-faced beauty in the prime of youth
Whose magic and allure were in her words -

32. She said, “Can the exiled forget their homelands,
When yearning disquiets the heart with its questions?”

33. “Syria is the dearest of lands,
And Lebanon the most precious for its peaks.”

34. “Its people are the noblest clan,
My soul redeemable to its family and children.”

35. “The gray hairs which shine brightest are those over its horizons,
For there is no majesty except theirs.”

36. “And the dearest rain is that which watered its soil,
Even the weeping willows over its ruins.”

37. “The place of my youth’s games in its dawns,
And where puberty spurred me on in its twilights.”

38. “I know its winds from the tails of its fragrant breezes,
Those houses - how often I imagined them

39. “In the shade of its oak trees, the bend of its gazelle!
I roamed with its birds, stayed up with its moons,

40. “And danced with its waterfalls;
I knelt to inspiration in its poplar stands,

41. “And laughed at dreams in its apple orchards;
I filled my mind with the talk of its elders,

42. “And took my poetry from the prattle of its children.
My eyes yearn - before blindness seals them -

43. “To be lined with its ashes.
The years brushed past me, some overtaking others,

44. “While fate galloped to its settled times;
The forms of beauty alternated, but in my thoughts

45. “Only their icon remained.
I wish the one who made life beautiful