حَرِّض بنيكَ عَلى الآدابِ في الصِغَرِ

كَيما تَقَرَّ بِهِم عَيناكَ في الكِبَرِ

Urge your children to manners in their youth

Urge your sons to cultivate virtue in their youth,

So your eyes may be delighted by them in old age

That your eyes may find solace in them when you grow old.

وَإِنَّما مَثَلُ الآدابِ تَجمَعُها

في عِنفُوانِ الصِبا كَالنَقشِ في الحَجَرِ

Verily, manners are like engravings gathered

For the likeness of knowledge gathered

In the prime of youth as on stone

In the bloom of childhood is like an engraving in stone.

هِيَ الكُنوزُ الَّتي تَنمو ذَخائِرُها

وَلا يُخافَ عَلَيها حادِثَ الغِيَرِ

They are treasures whose riches grow

It is the treasure whose reserves ever multiply,

And need not fear the accidents of fate

And which fears not the shifting accidents of time.

إِنَّ الأَديبَ إِذا زَلَّت بِهِ قَدَمٌ

يَهوي إِلى فَرُشِ الديباجِ وَالسُرُرِ

When a man of letters stumbles

Indeed, the man of refinement, should his foot ever slip,

He falls on carpets and pillows

Tumbles only onto spreads of silk brocade and couches.

الناسُ إِثنانِ ذو عِلمٍ وَمُستَمِعٍ

واعٍ وَسائِرُهُم كَاللّغوِ وَالعَكَرِ

People are of two types: the learned and the listener

Mankind is but two: the possessor of knowledge and the listener

The aware and the rest are but noise and din

Who comprehends; the rest are but idle noise and dregs.