عَجَباً لِلزَمانِ في حالَتَيهِ

عَجَباً لِلزَمانِ في حالَتَيهِ

وَبلاءٌ ذَهَبتُ مِنهُ إِلَيهِ

وَبلاءٌ ذَهَبتُ مِنهُ إِلَيهِ

How strange is time in both its states!

Wonder at this world in all its states!

I marvel at Time in its two states,

And affliction—I passed from it into it.

I left one affliction and entered another.

And a tribulation I fled from, only to run towards.

رُبَّ يَومٍ بَكَيتُ مِنهُ فَلَّما

رُبَّ يَومٍ بَكَيتُ مِنهُ فَلَّما

صُرتُ في غَيرِهِ بَكَيتُ عَلَيهِ

صُرتُ في غَيرِهِ بَكَيتُ عَلَيهِ

Many a day I wept because of it; then, when

Many a day I wept for troubles past,

Many a day I wept from its bitterness, yet when

I found myself in another, I wept for it.

Yet when another came I wept for those gone by.

I passed into another, I wept in longing for it.