1. It is death if war rises on its feet
Or else people feel whatever fear makes them feel

2. Its specter flashes before them in sleep and wakefulness
Without waiting for news to happen, news happens

3. We were alarmed so no eyelid closed in fear
No one settled comfortably in their bed

4. No nose but hung on a mask
No house but was cleft in its midst a crevasse

5. The hands did not curl up nor did the firewood
Burn with embers that do not die down or extinguish

6. So O ferocious lion baring fangs at mankind
Either turn back or pounce

7. The greed of strangers misled the Arabs
And now East and West pray to its fire

8. As if I see it risen with its beacons ablaze
Pens have dried and books rolled up

9. A ship that dares the sea is matched by one like it
And a flock in the heights of the sky by another flock

10. And between them Death walks as if
The souls of people are birds she covets

11. No impenetrable armor can prevent
Her harm nor any sharpened sword drive her back

12. The edge of the sword is blunted and the spear broken
And it becomes neither a stab nor a hit there

13. As if I see its cannons firing but no
Arrow goes astray nor cannonball fails to shoot

14. It destroys whatever it hits, its missiles
Taking aim at the Alps, battering them with bombardment

15. It is lightning snatching, thunder crashing
It is meteors plummeting from the cosmos

16. So whoever hunted doves with his arrows
We have arrows that can hunt the Pole Star

17. As if I see its planes in their buzzing
Each pouring out showers from its clouds

18. Reaching out to souls slyly
So neither head is severed nor blood spilled

19. With gentle edges you can barely feel it
Softer than rock or solid metal

20. With drops no echo can be made
No dry or wet place remains

21. When spread in the horizon it spares no sanctity
Neither female nor elder whose head whitened with age

22. When spread in the horizon it fells the sturdy
And suffocates a mother behind her a child mewling

23. Verily the air has been whitened with poison, will we see
The flowing water of rivers whitened, its pure draught?

24. I see the West approaching like a moth to flame
Do people set themselves on fire out of greed?

25. For twenty pilgrimages we have waged war
Every heart scarred with its wounds

26. It has harmed both its partisans, and if it wins
One faction suffers its humiliation, a faction pays

27. When we recall it our skins crawl
For people are like cattle, their food is fodder

28. As they huddle in trenches, they have no beds
Except dirt, even if dirt could avail

29. Suffering heat hands cannot bear
And cold no coat can withstand

30. The enemy has stuffed their noses with toxic gas
And set fire raging through their bodies

31. Alas wars whose blood never dries
And nations whenever they rise, they stumble

32. Rouse yourselves, O people, long has our journey lasted
Never once resting from the road and riding

33. Some set out towards glory and lost their way
Not knowing where their path led

34. Had they spent on good what they squander on war
Prosperity would be common and drought disappear

35. No helpless soul would lack his daily bread
No naked body lack clothes for cover

36. Nations in an age of light maul each other
As the wolf assails the lamb

37. Desecrating man, and perhaps
The dog sits with eyes at rest in their shade

38. When the lion hunts the gazelle seeking prey
What excuse has a people who hunt another people?

39. Many are the sins of the weak and helpless
What sins have the powerful when called to account?

40. As if between the two worlds there is no law
No resurrection behind them, no Lord above

41. No mercy in the laws of nature
And nothing in the world called love

42. No deity but might alone
Every zealous heart filled with its draught

43. It consoles me civilization has gone bankrupt
Its glamor is sham, its logic a lie

44. When civilization is personified, it is bare
With a hollow interior and no heart inside

45. Ask the vaunted learned ones about their knowledge
Did they bring the light of learning or kindle its fire?

46. What progress is there in the art of death?
Slow, stumbling steps forward in medicine

47. Monstrosities our ancestors never dreamed of
I wonder what the future conceal?

48. Damn the age of light! Damn its people!
All Eve's children are bent on plunder

49. Thus are people since Adam's time
Forms vary but minds are alike

50. Wars alone are disgrace enough for Eve's children
If they had no disgrace but wars