1. All that life demands of us
Is that misfortunes do not strike it.

2. And if harm befalls it, let it not persist,
Complaints against it do not last long.

3. It suffices that in one moment
Its sorrows double in intensity and pleasures.

4. Indeed, it alone is happiness, though
It does not endure for long.

5. In life there is a gathering of what is dispersed,
And in death a dispersion of all that is gathered.

6. Yet life is not equal:
It is either comfort or pain.

7. And if you observed it closely
It has virtues and vices alike.

8. Blessed is he whose vices in it
Are outweighed by virtues.

9. I am content with it though at its end
Misfortunes have overwhelmed its joys.

10. I still desire to live though in my heart
Are wounds from it that have pierced through.

11. It constantly gives me orders that I must obey,
Bringing at times joy and at others tears.

12. Only an obscure, boundless hope
Has endeared living to me.

13. All that adorns life is beautiful,
Though to remain in it is brief.

14. A lofty tree on which birds sing
In its branches, and ample shade.

15. Nearby a brook flows, pouring its water gently,
While flowers waft their fragrance through the breeze.

16. The sun rises in the morn and climbs
The blue sky, then begins to tilt downwards,

17. As it rises the day grows fairer,
And as it declines the evening grows more beautiful.

18. Without life we would be inanimate matter
Devoid of sense or reason.

19. Perhaps the beauty of the soul in us
Makes the physical world seem sublime,

20. Though because of it I am distracted
From contemplation of that inner world.

21. O life, you are the reality for me,
In you until death I find my bliss and woe.

22. O night, I send my salutations
From my place to your stars.

23. O moon, you rose before me,
O moon, you will rise after me.

24. O lightning that flashes in the clouds,
You are a naked sword with a sharp edge.

25. O morning, you are the most beautiful thing
To fill me with joy and renew my vigour.

26. O day, you are a glorious season
Occupying people between receding and advancing.

27. O poetry, you are the most plaintive song
In which I pour out my true fervour.

28. Poetry is not what poets recite
Imitating those before them in glory.

29. Rather, poetry is what, when recited,
Rouses peoples and provides guidance,

30. Or evokes feeling in the listener
Like the song of an enchanter pleading.

31. Yet people blame me saying that when together they fly as one
I alone soar on my own!

32. Good and evil both occurred to me
In my life, as did laughter and tears.

33. Misfortunes that afflicted my soul
I had previously made light of in times of ease.

34. But in my old age I have grown too weak
To bear the burdens placed upon me.

35. Yet I still wish to live on,
Though the days do not so wish.

36. Summer and spring passed quickly
And autumn came, then winter.

37. My fire for misery has died out, my nights are dark,
And soon I will meet my appointed time.

38. Why does my soul dread the encounter with death,
And why does this meeting frighten me?

39. Is it because when I perish
I will lose all those I hold dear?

40. And when the earth swallows me tomorrow
It will not see me nor will the sky?

41. Remove from me everything, for if I die
Things will not avail me.

42. O death, you will come one day
And strip me of my life.

43. O death, after a time
You will take me out of the light into darkness.

44. O death, soon
My movements will cease.

45. My life is but a chain, of which
You are the last link.

46. The day will come when
All my wishes in life will be forbidden me.

47. In the depths of my grave my body
Will decay and my essence will perish.

48. After I descend into my grave
My life and loss will be the same.

49. O death, you are sorrow
To all my loved ones and joy to my enemies.

50. To some you are justice
For their sins, and to some their good deeds.

51. You made a compassionate mother weep
And you made children orphans from mothers.

52. You broke up gatherings of joy
Of groom and bride on their wedding night.

53. You snatch babies from their mothers' arms
And the mother from her beloved child.

54. Gently, o death, you have gone too far
In murder then destruction.

55. You sneer at skulls, bloodied,
Mocking the sanctity of the masses.

56. After all the death you have dealt
And the havoc you have wreaked!

57. You are a disease, not like other maladies,
A calamity, not like other afflictions.

58. You are a beast whose ferocity
Grows every day with blood thirst.

59. You are the fiercest fang of fate
And its sharpest sword in the hands of destiny.

60. You have power over all souls
And are sovereign on earth and in heaven.

61. In your rule you are a tyrant, never inclined
To people's opinions or sentiments.

62. In the plains and mountains, on land and sea and air
You lie in wait, hidden and revealing yourself.

63. No individual in the darkness is hidden from your eyes
You see clearly in daylight and in gloom.

64. You are the gate leading those who enter
To endless, fathomless darkness.

65. You are the end of manifestations in life's theatre
For people, and the beginning of their disappearance.

66. Peoples fled from meeting you
But you leapt out to assault them.

67. You are humanity's scourge, excessive in murder,
And a sudden destroyer.

68. In your waves we perish one by one
Then your waves will not perish.

69. You destroy the old man, the able and the child nursing,
And the youth in his prime.

70. You extend for me nights and days
Then days extend them.

71. And if you find a healthy body
Illnesses throng to you in droves.

72. And if you descend on a place
It is afflicted and left without peace.

73. A disease with which the mighty die
Is one with which the lowly die.

74. When the soul reaches the extent of its lifespan
It sees no sky or stars.

75. And when I meet my end,
My life will have reached its completion.

76. It is the whole of my existence,
How can I be patient without it?

77. In life are my selfhood and being,
While death means their loss - how can I accept it?

78. I desired to live on though
My life was never free to do as it wished.

79. And when a soul inhabits a body
Its night has darkened and its morn has shone.

80. When the soul leaves the body
The righteous and sinful are equal.

81. Oh my soul, it will suddenly meet its doom -
How woeful its plight!

82. I see no compensation for the loss of the sun
Shining at the start of each day,

83. No stars adorning the night
Shining moons glowing.

84. No blossoms smiling in the gardens
Before dawn facing the horizon.

85. No aromatic scents carried on the breeze
After passing by the flowers.

86. No birds' trilling thrown from the branches
By the choir of feathered songsters,

87. No rustling of trees as the wind passed through them
In the late and early hours.

88. No burbling of water in the stream flowing
With foam dancing on its surface.

89. No hearing, no seeing, no smells, no tastes, nothing felt
In my surroundings.

90. After death, for loss of sensation
I will be like stones among rocks.

91. The ups and downs of fate will pass me by
While I lie in my grave unconcerned.

92. Only the effects of my thoughts will remain after me
Then fade away like my other traces.

93. If I lose my senses, how can I endure
The loss of my consciousness and memories of the past?

94. Whenever longing stirs my heart
It trembles intensely.

95. From hopes that appear to me
Like stars with brilliant lights.

96. When youth was fresh I walked happily
In clothes with billowing folds.

97. Farewell to the bygone youth that departed from me
And its bountiful days.

98. The bulbul, sick with love, trilled
When it saw the rose rejecting him.

99. When the hopeless bulbul undertook departure
Farewell to the beauty of the gardens.

100. Will I consent to the rule of death
If it desires to take me with no objections?

101. If I am certain after death I will find
My life again, I will be content.

102. But I doubt, so let fate delay
Its judgment on what has been decreed.

103. I weep for the collapse of my home
After the course of fate struck it down.

104. Death has arrows, and I
Am the target of its arrows.

105. After the bodies of people die
Only inanimate matter remains.

106. O death, you always stand
Lying in wait for life.

107. It builds and you demolish rapidly -
It is in one valley and you are in another.

108. O death, I do not care if you are hidden from me
Or if you show yourself.

109. You make surrender to you easy
For people with slack reins, easy to lead.

110. Many people died altogether, and people
Perished in barren wastelands.

111. Graves over graves
And countries atop countries.

112. The time has come for me to become
What my mother, father, and ancestors became before me.

113. And I imagine time in its rotations
Returns the ruined to prosperity.

114. And man will one day return
As his groups did with individuals.

115. I have not clung to any truth
So why does my frankness enrage them?

116. O people, if you desire immortality
Then kill death and bury it far away.

117. Shackle its hands with heavy chains
And its feet likewise with fetters.

118. Pour molten copper, lead, iron and steel over it,
Build a high wall around it from boulders.

119. Raise it to the sky then lower it to the ground,
Then repeat this rising and lowering.

120. Watch it from afar by day
And keep it under surveillance by night.

121. Maybe this will keep it from
The harm to which it is accustomed.

122. Between what I say and the truth, death
Cannot be warded off when it comes.

123. When it comes one day, there will be
No way to make it turn back.

124. It is the flaw of life that when
It widened, it remained a cleft unable to close.

125. Perhaps after I lie down in my grave
I will have pleasant, tranquil rest.

126. If I rest in it, I will not be disturbed
By heat or cold like the living.

127. Maybe life is a hidden action
And death is the response to that action.

128. Or life is the electricity filling cells
And death its loss from them.

129. Nature has not ceased constructing
Then destroying what it constructed.

130. Thus there is war between life and death -
It seeks to crush life but life refuses.

131. Gathering germs into armies
Launching fierce attacks.

132. And life melts away,
With its cells and mobilized troops.

133. The clash between the two sides
Is violent, with flames blazing.

134. That is war between cells and the enemies of cells -
Stabbing and striking.

135. There the dead are torn to pieces
And those pieces are seized as spoils.

136. And life is cautious of further attacks
When fury has abated for a time.

137. Then when death finds a breach
It storms through precipitously.

138. And life keeps warding off
The evil until weary, it is vanquished.

139. Perhaps death is better for people
Who embarked on a difficult voyage of disgrace.

140. What good is life that everyday
Suffers from ever-growing sorrows?

141. When I settle into my grave
After death, my rest there may be good.

142. If I rest there I will not be disturbed
By heat or cold as the living are.

143. And soon after, my essence will meet
My dear ones who passed on before me.

144. And I imagine time in its rotations
Will return decayed lands to prosperity,

145. And man will once more become
As his multitude was with individuals.

146. I have not clung to any creed wrongfully
So why does my flesh anger them?

147. O death, make me outrun rhyme
For I am suited to enduring.

148. No inclination pulls me to destruction,
Though destruction's threads run through me.

149. I do not know where following you
On my path will lead me.

150. What sorrow that when the close friend dies
He is buried by his dear friend!

151. You are like a thief assailing homes -
Audaciously tearing down curtains.

152. You take away the happy man from his companions, money, bed, and ample wealth,
Leaving behind orphans small in age,

153. And women tearing at gray hair.
And you transport the splendid master from his manor

154. To the gloomy belly of a grave.
You are the wolf of huts that snatches their children

155. From their breasts and pens.
Wresting the infant from its mother's arms

156. And the mother from her beloved child.
Gently, o death, for you have gone too far

157. In murder then havoc.
You sneer at skulls, bloodied,

158. Mocking the dignity of the nation.
For the death you have inflicted,

159. And the changes you have plotted!
You are disease, and not an ailment like other ailments.

160. You are misery, not an affliction like other afflictions.
You are a beast whose ferocity daily increases,

161. And whose thirst for blood flows stronger.
You are the fiercest fang of sins

162. And the sharpest sword in the hands of destiny.
You have power over every soul

163. And are sovereign over the earth and heavens.
In your rule you are a despot, never inclined

164. To the opinions and views of mankind.
On land and sea, in mountains and plains you lie waiting,

165. Observing from the earth, water and air.
No individual in darkness is hidden from your eyes -

166. You see clearly in daylight and dark.
You are the gate, entered by multitudes

167. To endless, fathomless blackness.
You are the limit of existence in life's theatre

168. For mortals, and the start of their absence.
You assault fleeing nations -

169. A leaping, attacking beast.
You are humanity's scourge, excessive in slaughter,

170. And a sudden wrecker.
We all perish in your waves one by one

171. Yet your waves do not perish.
You destroy the old, the able, the child nursing,

172. And the youth in his prime.
You lengthen my nights and days

173. Then days lengthen them.
And when you find a healthy body

174. Illnesses flock to you in throngs.
And if you descend on a place

175. It is afflicted, left without peace.
A disease that kills the mighty

176. Also kills the weak.
When the soul reaches the end of its lifespan

177. It sees neither sky nor stars.
And when you take me, my life

178. Will have reached its final limit.
It is the essence of my being -

179. How can I be patient without it?
It contains my existence and identity -

180. While death means their loss - how can I accept it?
In life are my being, desires and pleasures -

181. Though it was never free to do as it wished.
And when a soul inhabits a body

182. Its night grows dark and its dawn shines.
When the soul leaves the body

183. Both saint and sinner equalized.
Oh my soul, it will suddenly meet its annihilation -

184. How woeful for it!
I see no reparation for the sun's absence

185. Shining at dawn each day.
No stars adorning the darkness of night -

186. Shining moons glowing.
No flowers smiling in gardens

187. Before dawn facing the horizon.
No scents borne on breeze

188. After passing the flowers.
Then I hear no longer the warbling

189. Thrown from the branches by choruses of birds.
No rustling trees as the winds pass through them

190. In late and early hours.
No burbling of water in the streams flowing,

191. Its foam dancing on the surface.
No hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling -

192. Nothing in my surroundings!
After decay, with loss of sensations

193. I am a inert stone among rocks.
Life's ups and downs pass me by

194. While I, in my grave, do not stir.
Only effects of my thoughts remain beyond me

195. Then fade away like my other traces.
If I lose my senses, how can I endure

196. The loss of my consciousness and memories of the past?
Whenever longing stirs my heart again

197. It shakes with great trembling.
For hopes that come to me

198. Like stars with brilliant lights.
When youth was fresh I walked happily

199. In clothes with billowing pleats.
Farewell to the bygone youth that left me

200. And its bountiful days.
The bulbul, sick with love, trilled

201. When it saw the rose rejecting him.
When the hopeless bulbul took departure

202. Farewell to the beauty of the gardens.
Will I consent to the rule of death

203. If it seeks to take me without protest?
If I'm certain after death I'll find

204. My life returned, I'll be content.
But I doubt, so let fate delay

205. Its word on what's been decreed.
I weep for the fall of my home

206. When fate's course struck it down.
Death has arrows, and I'm

207. The target for its arrows.
After bodies die

208. Only the inanimate remains.
O death, you always stand

209. To ambush life.
It builds and you rapidly demolish -

210. It's in one valley, you in another.
O death, I care not if you're absent from me