1. My eyes are veiled with tears’ film,
Or is it a cloud's veil on the sun?

2. The light of my eyes faded, or my mind grew dim,
I know not, save I am in darkness.

3. How strange my soul is reckless of perturbation
Where is that pride? Where is that pomp?

4. It amazes me, what made it abject.
It neither complains nor implores.

5. Would it had not known that beloved!
Happy is he whose life is unaware.

6. No smiles of girls, no rustle of gowns
Fascinate it, nor birds’ singing;

7. There is coldness between it and me,
Am I alone, or are all men thus?

8. I see no escape from my sorrows,
They are here, there, and on that path.

9. In the grove, above the grove, below the grove,
In the spacious, beautiful garden,

10. In the bough’s trembling, the zephyr’s breath,
In the rain’s harmony, the lightning’s gleam.

11. Whenever lightning flashed or shone,
I complained of the dark's arrows in the night.

12. The smile of dawn gives healing to the sick,
Yet the dawn’s smile harbours sickness.

13. Whenever a longing stirs for the beloved
I am seized by a quiver like electricity.

14. My eyes taught the planets wakefulness
And my heart taught the lightning passion.

15. I called not the tears save they poured,
O my tears, you are my truest friend.

16. Naught allures me to weep like despair,
Nor aught heals the stricken like tears.

17. So weep, you hapless, whenever the flames of love
Grow stronger, and words cannot avail.

18. My heart I left in sorrow alone,
I and none other the stricken one;

19. And I fancied sorrow found no home,
Save my riven heart and broken frame.

20. I deemed however spiteful time became,
It would not agonize me in my dear land.

21. When hark! Those songs in misery!
And lo! Each heart in fiery pain!

22. All my fancies vanished into air,
Like a dream's absurd imaginings.

23. Blame me not if I am tried by fate,
And blame time, who betrayed me.

24. The nights left in me no delight,
Grief left me nothing save my bones.

25. Ask me not what news has come,
For in talk is fear, and words are spies.

26. My west! The sword flashing bright!
The flowers and jewels are laid waste.

27. When despair overcomes hope,
Complaint is silenced, words do not avail.

28. Yet I saw, as God ordained,
A poet in me spontaneously chanting,

29. My flowing verse blocked what it blocked from my soul
While fluent speech forsook me.

30. Sorrow tied my tongue so it knotted,
What sword is not nicked by blows?

31. With woes, whenever the light shone,
They struck over my eyes a veil.

32. And griefs, whenever eve fell,
Cut off my lids from sleep.

33. I see only phantoms pacing
To and fro, right and left,

34. Over a land of blood and flame,
In a spacious world of cares and sorrows.

35. Where are the smiles of the trenches?
Why are all my people in tears, sad?

36. All I hear is moaning and weeping,
All I see is the fallen and afflicted.

37. Was this sky shaken by an earthquake?
Or have the tombs disgorged their dead?

38. An event happened that cannot be repelled,
And the wrongdoer attacked those prairies,

39. A greed that cannot be sated engulfed them
And their people sank in fear and hunger.

40. They are either a bloodstain or a corpse,
Either slain or scattered dust.

41. If she complained, she blamed the times' injustice;
If they complained, they blamed people's spite.

42. Man toyed therein, and destiny wrought.
Alas for the tyranny of nights and oppressors!

43. How many a guiltless infant
Died a sinner's death!

44. One from whom great deeds were hoped,
Had he lived unharmed;

45. A star that had just appeared in the sky,
Shining, when it vanished like a dream;

46. It set like water on the desert earth -
I never knew the full moon's abode to be gravel!

47. Thus the wintry wind destroyed it -
A flower whose buds did not open.

48. How many a sheikh did events make homeless!
The old man walked in his rags.

49. Weakness kept him from carrying his staff
And competing as in his youth.

50. He dwelt secure as an eagle in its eyrie,
Remembering the days of his youth,

51. With a smile about his lips.
The tyrant doomed him to death,

52. And inexorable fate allowed no pity.
A youth like a fresh, slender bough,

53. In whose cheek dimples smiled -
You could see him amid the houses,

54. Above them, a star.
Radiant in mind and heart,

55. An angel in his cloak -
He lies unable to wear his cloak,

56. Yet he is still in his twenties.
He is not ill or broken,

57. Only hunger has worn his bones.
And little ones like fledgling birds,

58. Jostling from dire hunger,
Their nerves undermined when want became prolonged,

59. Hunger enfeebles even lions' determination.
Have you not seen a necklace snapped?

60. Thus their tears flow down their cheeks.
Their souls were shed like water -

61. How harsh is anguish, O God!
God have mercy on the souls of the martyrs!

62. May He water their bones from the clouds!
You who stand aloof from that sanctuary,

63. There is in that sanctuary what you know:
One oppressed among its free,

64. While you stand watching from afar.
No, nor do we wish to enjoy while others suffer.

65. Not so does the father reward his goodly sons.
You are all, O people, equal in affliction.

66. I see in calamity no Lebanon and Syria.
The nights pass over

67. With their events, and you laugh.
You learn nothing from past years,

68. Nor will you be warned tomorrow.
O how awful is the event! Yet you play!

69. Bury your brawls, O leaders!
God will raise up concord from the grave.

70. The most hateful clouds to the rain-shower
Are you, rich men, to the destitute.

71. A nation dies while you amuse yourselves!
Stretch out your hands, O wealthy:

72. The most hateful clouds to the rain-shower
Are you, rich men, to the destitute.