1. What is there of life beyond death's renewal
None shall rise again from the tombs exalted

2. In it the day is like a night without dawn
While the nights are all jet black

3. The grave is the final home for those who perished
Sense in the deceased, wasted, is lost

4. Thus he who the soil covers over
His corpse does not know it's in a pit enclosed

5. For me is winter, and winter's howling winds
Though spring has come, the branch does not leaf

6. There lies a trunk on vacant ground, wind-blown
As if amidst the gale, frozen

7. And so is man lame at his ending
And so from man the pillar is removed

8. As for palaces, there in their terrain
Like graves, ruins, ruins

9. The living makes mighty effort for life
The dead makes no toil so death endures

10. Ask the communities of Arabs and non-Arabs
Is there among them one in life content?

11. I complain to God - misery does not leave me
As if tied to me even til death

12. Ailment of wasting, grievous pains
And over them the threats of villains

13. There remains for me only the door of death open
Each other door, closed shut

14. Today I sought deceptive pleasures
In remembering a pact which was loyal to me before

15. The shadow I kept pace with in my youth
For so long, has shrunk away

16. No wine remains for me to savor its mellowness
No cluster on the vine of hopes

17. My youth was a spring in which the morning birds'
Trilling and singing brought me delight

18. Youth died, and youth's joys all together
Except concerns - with them the soul is burdened