لله في طي هذا الكون آيات

له بتصريفها محو واثبات

God has signs within the folds of this universe.

Through His ordering of them, His are erasure and affirmation.

تجري المقادير انواعا بحكمته

منه الجميع وللغير الاضافات

The decrees of fate run various courses by His wisdom.

All is from Him; to others belong the attributions.

تطوى المظاهر والباقي القديم على

ما كان قدس والاحياء اموات

Manifest forms are folded away; the Eternal who remains is, as

He ever was, holy; the living are dead.

اين النبيون طرا اين آدمهم

أين الملوك الالى اين الكتيبات

Where are all the prophets? Where is their Adam?

Where are the kings of old? Where are the battalions?

كانوا فبانوا فلم تبصر اماكنهم

كأنهم قبل لا جاؤوا ولا ماتوا

They lived, then departed; you could no longer see their places,

as though, before, they had neither come nor died.

يا من تسربل بالبهتان كن فطنا

واترك هواكم فللبهتان آفات

O you who have robed yourself in slander, be discerning,

and abandon your whims, for slander has its scourges.

خربت دينك للدنيا وعن طمع

طمتك من حيث لا تدري البليات

You ruined your faith for this world, out of greed;

calamities engulfed you from where you do not know.

قد غرك اليوم امهال رتعت به

هون عليك فللامهال أوقات

Today a reprieve in which you reveled has deceived you;

go easy: reprieves have their appointed times.

تبغي البقاء بذي الدنيا تعظ وافق

هل للبقاء الذي تبغي علامات

You seek permanence in this world; take warning and awaken.

Are there signs of the permanence you seek?

تقول هيهات ان نفنى وهل نفعت

اخا البطالة والتسويف هيهات

You say, 'Far be it that we should perish!' Yet has

'Far be it!' helped a man of idleness and procrastination?

قل الكرام وقد جل اللئام ولم

ترفع لا عزاز امر الحق رايات

The noble have grown few, the base have multiplied, and no

banners are raised to exalt the cause of truth.

والناس مثل غثاء السيل تحسبهم

زعما جميعا وهم في الحال اشتات

People are like the torrent's scum; you reckon them

united, supposedly, while in reality they are scattered.

وكم لسان قبيح في فم دنس

تشكوه لله اعراض نقيات

How many a foul tongue in a filthy mouth

is complained of to God by unblemished honor!

تقدم اليوم قوم لا خلاق لهم

رغم المعالي وللتقديم علات

People without virtue have advanced today,

in defiance of lofty worth; their advancement has its causes.

واحيت القوم خلات وقد قتلت

اهل المروآت للمجد المروآت

Traits have kept these people alive, while there have been slain,

for glory's sake, by virtues, the men of virtue.

قد اتعبثهم معاليهم وكم فطن

حطته في الدهر اخلاق عليات

Their lofty virtues have wearied them; how many a discerning man

has been brought low in this world by exalted qualities!

وما استراح بذي الدنيا سوى سفل

لهم من الراح

None finds rest in this world except the base,

for them, some wine...

لا العيب يثقلهم عبأ ولا شيم

تخزي ولا بعد اجداد وجدات

No fault weighs on them as a burden, nor traits

that shame them, nor the remoteness of grandfathers and grandmothers.

ان عورضوا خلقوا عيبا لذي شرف

تنحط عن مجده الزهر المضيئات

If opposed, they invent a fault in a man of honor,

beneath whose glory the shining stars sink.

واكثروا غلطا فحواه من غلط

وللاسافل اغلاط سقيمات

They multiply error, its substance itself born of error;

the lowly have sickly errors of their own.

ان العبيد عبيد كيفما انتحلوا

اسم المراتب والسادات سادات

Slaves remain slaves, however they assume

the titles of rank; masters remain masters.

ولا يضر كرام القوم شانئهم

وللاداني بقول الزور عادات

No hater can harm the noblest of the people;

the lowly are accustomed to speaking falsehood.

يستجذب النجم بالاوهام ذو سفه

دنى اصل له البهتان مرقات

A foolish man seeks to pull down the star with fancies,

base of stock, with slander as his ladder.

والنجم في المركز الاعلى بموقعه

سام وراصده بالوهم يقتات

Yet the star, in the highest station, in its place,

stands lofty, while its watcher feeds on delusion.

ورب ساع لهدم المجد من بطل

لم تثنه عن معاليه الاخيالات

Many a striver has sought to tear down a hero's glory,

yet fancies did not turn him from his lofty deeds.

لوى عليه جنود الزور فانقلبت

ثكلى وبالزور تسليه المنامات

He rallied armies of falsehood against him; they returned

bereaved, while dreams console him with lies.

تدري الاجلاء ان الخب يطرب اذ

تمس مجد اخى المجد المسبات

The eminent know that the rogue rejoices when

insults touch the glory of a man of glory.

تبا لعصر يسود الارذلون به

وهم لعمر العلا للعصر سوآت

Woe to an age in which the vilest rule!

By the life of loftiness, they are that age's disgraces.

وللمكارم اعداء وعنصرهم

للدين ذل وللدنيا مضرات

Noble virtues have enemies, and their stock

is humiliation for religion and harm to the world.

آباؤهم من طغام القوم اهل خنا

والامهات خسيسات دنيات

Their fathers are the rabble of the people, men of obscenity,

and their mothers are mean and base.

اعلاهمو ذهب بالاثم قد ذهبوا

بجمعه ولسر الجمع نكتات

Gold has raised them high; in sin they have set about

amassing it, and the secret of amassing has subtleties.

واصبحوا وكان الخلق في عمه

عنهم وفي الامر اسرار خفيات

They have risen, as though mankind were blind

to them; the matter holds hidden secrets.

لا بد يستيقظ الدهر النؤم ويج

لو ظلمة الوقت ايام واساعات

Slumbering Time must awaken, and

days and hours dispel the darkness of the age.

ويفهم الرمز اقوم لقد جهلوا ال

حق اليقين وقد تقضى لبانات

And peoples will grasp the allusion, though they had not known

the certain truth; and desires may be fulfilled.

وتستفز اسود من مضاجعهم

ماتوا ولكن بعلم الله ما ماتوا

And lions will be roused from their resting places;

they died, yet in God's knowledge they have not died.

ويبرز الحق منصورا وياخذ من

سفاسف القوم اهل الطيش ثارات

Truth will emerge victorious and take

vengeance on the people's dregs, the reckless ones.

فللنبي أشؤت مطلسمة

تبدو ولله جل الله غارات

For the Prophet has [unclear word], talismanically veiled,

which appear; and God—exalted be God—has His onslaughts.

لا تستطل صاح للانذال مدتهم

فللمصائب اوقات قصيرات

Do not deem the base men's time too long, my friend;

for calamities have brief spans.

وخلهم فلهم من غيهم زمن

به عليهم بليات عظيمات

Leave them; their waywardness has a span

in which mighty calamities will fall upon them.

وارجع إلى الله بالقلب السليم وقف

ببابه وتواليك المسرات

Return to God with a sound heart, and stand

at His door, and joys will come to you in succession.

ما ضرت الاسد في الغابات نابحة

من الكلاب لها عج وصيحات

No barking she-dog has harmed the lions in the forests,

one of the dogs, for all her clamor and cries.

تبغي المفاخر انذال ويدفعهم

عن المفاخر اخلاق ذميمات

Base men seek honors, but they are kept

from honors by their vile manners.

ويستبيح العلا طيشا ذوو نسب

نتن به التف اعراق خبيثات

Men of a lineage recklessly lay claim to high rank—

a rotten lineage, entwined with wicked roots.

لا الناس ماتت ولا تلك الدفاتر قد

ضاعت ولامر اعوام طويلات

Neither have the people died, nor have those records

been lost; the matter stretches back long years.

هل بالدراهم يعلو عرق ذي سفل

عن قومه السود قد تحكى الحكايات

Can the stock of a base man rise through dirhams?

Tales are indeed told of his black kin.

يشرى أبو الظلف منهم والعصامعه

والناس للناس اخبار واثبات

The 'cloven-hoofed one' is bought from them, staff and all;

people have accounts and evidence about one another.

راموا الكرام بعيب كاذب ورموا

بالزور مجدهمو والنذل بهات

They assailed the noble with a fabricated fault and attacked

their glory with falsehood; the base man is a slanderer.

فكذب الله والابرار قائلهم

ودنست دينهم تلك الروايات

God and the righteous gave their spokesman the lie,

and those tales befouled their faith.

وللاماجد رغم الفاجرين على

صحائف المجد اخبار صحيحات

Despite the profligates, the illustrious have, upon

the scrolls of glory, true accounts.

ورب خبل خسيس العرض جرأه

على الاسود اويقات رديات

Many a fool, base in honor, was emboldened

against the lions by wretched little spells of time.

فقام من عشه يبغي العلا وقحا

سلاحه سوء اخلاق وكذبات

He rose from his nest, brazenly seeking high rank,

armed with bad character and lies.

سقيم رأي مريض العقل علته

بغض الهدى حين طمته الضلالات

Unsound in judgment, sick in mind—his malady

is hatred of guidance, when delusions have engulfed him.

من الوقاحة قامت فيه شعبذة

اضحت نتيجة معناها الخرافات

Out of impudence, charlatanry arose within him;

its meaning's outcome proved to be superstitions.

يظن بالزور ان يعلو لمرتبة

وما درى ان حبل الزور مفلات

He thinks that through falsehood he will rise to a rank,

not knowing that falsehood's rope slips free.

قد غشه سلف بالغش ساد ولم

يفقه سيفشل اذ تبدو الخفيات

A predecessor who ruled by deceit deceived him; he did not

understand that he would fail when hidden things appeared.

لله في الارض احكام يصرفها

تفيضها من خفاياها السموات

God has decrees on earth that He directs,

which the heavens pour forth from their hidden depths.

فينقضي زمن صعب ويخلفه

رغم المعاند ازمان رخيات

Thus a hard time passes and is followed,

despite the obstinate, by times of ease.

ويندم الكلب مبهوتا لجرأته

على السباع وقد تكسوه لعنات

The dog will regret, dumbfounded, his audacity

against the beasts of prey, while curses clothe him.

عجبت ياميّ من هذا الزمان وكم

فيه يشاهد احوال عجيبات

I marvel, O Mayy, at this age; how many

astonishing conditions are witnessed in it!

يحيى نوال الفتى قوما متى شبعوا

فهم عقارب اضرار وحيات

A young man's bounty sustains people; when they are sated,

they become harmful scorpions and serpents.

كأنهم قبل زاد الذل ما اكلوا

ولا انحطاطا على فرش الثرى باتوا

As though, before, they had never eaten the provisions of abasement,

nor, in degradation, slept upon the earth's bedding,

ولا لزبد وبكر طأطوا كتفا

لدرهم ولهم آه وأنات

nor bowed a shoulder for Zabd [name uncertain] and Bakr,

for a dirham, with sighs and groans.

جاءت عباراتنا شتى لرقتها

وفي العبارات اذ تتلى اشارات

Our expressions have come varied, in their subtlety,

and in those expressions, when recited, are allusions.

فخل يا قلب عنك الناس وارض وطب

فللبدايات مذ تبدو نهايات

So leave people aside, O heart; be content and at ease,

for beginnings, from their first appearance, have endings.

وسلم الامر للرحمن معتقدا

فهو المؤثر والاثار آلات

Entrust the matter to the All-Merciful, believing,

for He is the effective agent, and effects are instruments.

وارفع له الحال عن صدق فما رفعت

لغير حضرته في الخطب اصوات

Raise your plight to Him sincerely; no voices have been raised

in distress to any presence but His.

والجأ لسدته العظمى وتبرز من

سجو فهالك بالنصر البشارات

Seek refuge at His supreme threshold; there emerge from

its veils, for you, glad tidings of victory.