الخريف الخريف رددت الأطيار

نشيدا مرقرقا كالضياء

“Autumn, autumn!” the birds repeated

a shimmering song, like light.

لست أدري أكان بصحبه

الخوف من البرد أم حواه الحياء

I do not know: was it accompanied by

fear of the cold, or did shyness enfold it?

كل شيء صاف وصاح ويسام

وكأن الشباب في وجنتيه

Everything is clear and awake, and [perhaps smiling],

and it is as though youth were in its cheeks.

كل شيء قد ناله البعث بع

الصيف حلوا والشوق في مقلتيه

Everything has been touched by resurrection [after]

summer, sweetly, with longing in its eyes.

قد خرجنا من الجحيم معافين

فمن ذا يشتاق عهد الجحيم

We have emerged from hell unharmed;

so who longs for the days of hell?

أيها المشتكي تنعم قبيل النفي

شريدا إلى الصقيع العميم

O complainer, enjoy yourself just before you are banished,

an outcast, into the all-pervading frost.

الوجود القرير حولك يفتر

بتسبيح عابد في صلاته

The contented world around you smiles

with a worshipper’s praise in his prayer.

غلب الخوف جم إيمانه

الحلو فزاد الإيمان مجلى حياته

Fear was overcome by his abundant faith—

sweet faith—and faith heightened his life’s radiance.

وإخال الأشجار في نثرها

الأوراق تعرين قبل يوم عميق

And I imagine the trees, as they scatter

their leaves, have bared themselves before a deep day,

كالجمال الذي تهيأ للنوم

طويلا مع الشتاء الصديق

like beauty that has readied itself to sleep

for a long while with winter, the friend.

لا تبالي ما بعد نومتها الكبرى

ولم تكترث لنذر الشتاء

They care nothing for what follows their great sleep,

and have paid no heed to winter’s warnings.

حسبها اليوم نشوة من

حياة لم تنغص فما لها والفناء

Enough for them today is rapture from

an untroubled life—what have they to do with annihilation?