1. من الملأ العلوي من عالم الخلدِ

    أهلُّ عليكم بالتحيّات والحمدِ

    From the heavenly assembly, from the realm of eternity,

    I appear before you with salutations and praise.

  2. تقحمتُ حُجب الغيب حتى أتيتكم

    لأجزيكم عن بعض إحسانكم عندي

    I broke through the veils of the unseen until I came to you,

    To repay you for some of your kindness toward me.

  3. قطعتُ حدود الأين في متطاولٍ

    من اللوح يفنى البعد فيه من البعدِ

    I crossed the bounds of 'where' through a vast stretch

    Of ether, where distance perishes from sheer distance.

  4. كأن الفضاء اللانهائي سائرٌ

    على كرةٍ لا حدَّ فيها سوى حدّي

    As though infinite space were moving

    Upon a sphere with no boundary but my own.

  5. إذا ما ركضت السير في فلواته

    تشابه ما قبلي عليّ وما بعدي

    Whenever I quickened my pace through its wastes,

    What lay ahead of me and what lay behind me looked alike to me.

  6. إلى أن تجاوزت النجوم جواذباً

    إليهن عطفي غير أنْ لسن من قصدي

    Until I passed beyond the stars, which drew

    My affection toward them, though they were not my goal.

  7. يناشدني – والنور ثمّ – لسانها

    لأنشدَها شعري وأصفيَها ودّي

    Their tongue implores me—and light is there—

    To recite my poetry to them and offer them my sincere love.

  8. ولو لم تكن مصرٌ وجلّقٌ الهوى

    وبغداد لم أبخل عليها بما عندي

    Had Egypt and Jilliq not been my love,

    And Baghdad, I would not have withheld from them what I have.

  9. معانٍ قضى فيها الشباب مآربي

    وسلّت بها كبرى العزائم إفرندي

    Meanings in which youth fulfilled my desires,

    And there the greatest resolves unsheathed my steel.

  10. وأمليتُ فيها الدهر غرّ قصائدي

    فغنى بها الأجيال في السهل والنجدِ

    And there I dictated my brightest odes to Time,

    So it sang them to generations on the plain and upland.

  11. قطعتُ حدود الأين حتى أتيتكم

    فمن لمتى ما بيننا قام كالسدِّ

    I crossed the bounds of 'where' until I reached you;

    Yet who can overcome 'when,' which has risen between us like a dam?

  12. أجل، ألف عامٍ حال بيني وبينكم

    فلولا سبقتم أو تأخّرَ بي عهدي

    Yes, a thousand years stood between me and you.

    If only you had come earlier, or my time had come later,

  13. سعدتُ بلقياكم وفزتم برؤيتي

    لو انَّ يدَ المقدار ألغته في العدِّ

    I would have rejoiced to meet you, and you would have been fortunate to see me,

    Had the hand of fate erased it from the reckoning.

  14. ألا فتزحزح يا زمان لشاعرٍ

    يريد فلا تقوى الجبال على صدّي

    Come, then, make way, O Time, for a poet

    Who wills, and so the mountains cannot bar my way.

  15. أغرّك أنّ الأرض قد شربت دمي؟

    وأنّ عيون الشهب قد شهدت لحدي؟

    Has it deceived you that the earth has drunk my blood?

    And that the eyes of the shooting stars have witnessed my grave?

  16. رويدك قد خلّدتُ في الشعر محضه

    ولم يبق منه للتراب سوى الدُردي

    Not so fast: I have immortalized its pure essence in poetry,

    And nothing of it remains for the dust but the dregs.

  17. فها هو في الأجيال ينساب صافياً

    إلى ابنٍ .. إلى ابنٍ .. من أبيه .. من الجدِّ

    So here it is, flowing clear through the generations,

    To a son ... to a son ... from his father ... from the grandfather.

  18. يزيد على الأيام كالخمر سورةً

    لو أن حُميّا الخمر تهدي كما يهدي

    It grows in potency with the days, like wine,

    If only wine's heady force could guide as my poetry guides.

  19. أنا الخالد الساري بأعصاب شعبه

    وما شعبه بالنزر أو ضرِع الخدِّ

    I am the immortal who courses through his people's nerves,

    And his people are neither few nor meek of cheek.