لعمرُك ما السيفُ سيف الكميِّ

لعمرُك ما السيفُ سيف الكميِّ

بأخوفَ من قلم الكاتِبِ

بأخوفَ من قلم الكاتِبِ

By your life, the sword—the armored warrior’s sword—

By your life, the sword is no sword of warriors,

is no more fearsome than the scribe’s pen.

More dreadful than a writer's pen,

لهُ شاهدٌ إنْ تأمّلتَهُ

لهُ شاهدٌ إنْ تأمّلتَهُ

ظهرتَ على سرِّهِ الغائبِ

ظهرتَ على سرِّهِ الغائبِ

It offers proof: if you examine it,

It has a witness, if you examine it,

you will discover its hidden secret.

Its hidden essence appears.

أداةُ المنيةِ في جانبَيْه

أداةُ المنيةِ في جانبَيْه

فَمِنْ مثلِهِ رهبةُ الراهبِ

فَمِنْ مثلِهِ رهبةُ الراهبِ

Death’s instrument lies at both its ends;

The means of death on both its sides,

thus its like inspires the fearful one’s dread.

So it is like the fear of monks.

سنانُ المنيّةِ في جانبٍ

سنانُ المنيّةِ في جانبٍ

وسيفُ المَنِيَّةِ في جانبِ

وسيفُ المَنِيَّةِ في جانبِ

Death’s spearhead is at one end,

The fangs of death on one side,

and death’s sword is at the other.

And the sword of death on the other.

ألم تر في صدره كالسنان

ألم تر في صدره كالسنان

وفي الرِّدفِ كالمُرْهَفِ القاضبِ

وفي الرِّدفِ كالمُرْهَفِ القاضبِ

Have you not seen at its front something like a spearhead,

Don't you see in its chest like fangs

and at its rear something like a keen, cutting sword?

And in its sheath like an unsheathed blade?