1. حقيق إن بكيت دماً حقيق

    تحمل عاتقي ما لا أطيق

    It is fitting, if I weep blood—fitting indeed.

    My shoulder bears what I cannot endure:

  2. ذنوباً لو بها ألقيت ميتاً

    تحامتني القشاعم والأنوق

    Sins such that, were I cast down dead bearing them,

    The old vultures and the Egyptian vulture would shun me.

  3. ولو سلمى أقل البعض منها

    تهدم من ذراه وهو نيق

    And if Salma bore even a portion of them,

    It would crumble from its heights, lofty peak though it is.

  4. أو البحر المحيط جرت عليه

    ذنوبي راح وهو بها غريق

    Or if over the encircling ocean flowed

    My sins, it would itself be drowned in them.

  5. ولو لفحت صعوداً وهو ثلجٌ

    لأصبح معدناً منه الخريق

    And if they scorched Saʿud, though it were snow,

    It would become a source from which fierce winds blow.

  6. فكيف بأنني بشر سويٌّ

    وأصلي مضغة ودم عليق

    How, then, can I endure, a well-formed human being,

    When my origin is a morsel of flesh and clotted blood?

  7. عجيباً ما تهد به الرواسي

    وتحمله المفاصل والعروق

    How astonishing: what lays the steadfast mountains low,

    Yet joints and veins carry it!

  8. أنا الحي الذي قد مت حيا

    أنا المأسور بالذنب الطليق

    I am the living one who has died while alive.

    I am the captive of sin, yet unfettered.

  9. أنا السكران من صهبا ذنوبٍ

    وسكران الذنوب متى يفيق

    I am drunk on the red wine of sins.

    And when will one drunk on sins sober up?

  10. يقولون الشباب به فسوق

    وعند الشيب ينفسق الفسوق

    They say there is wickedness in youth,

    And when hair turns gray, wickedness falls away.

  11. وبالشيب المواعظ ناصحاتٌ

    وعند الشيب لا طبع طفوق

    And with gray hair, admonitions offer sound counsel,

    And in gray-haired age, no temperament remains impulsive.

  12. أراني والمشيب فقد علاني

    أتوق للهوى من لا يتوق

    I see myself—though gray hair has already overtaken me—

    Rousing to passion those who feel no longing.

  13. وها أنا صرت عوداً أي عود

    وأخلاقي وأطباعي حقوق

    And here I have become an old camel—what an old camel!

    Yet my morals and instincts are three-year-old camels.

  14. فتى الخمسين سني والسجايا

    ابنة العشرين ديدنها الصفيق

    In years I am a youth of fifty; my dispositions

    Are a girl of twenty, whose constant habit is shamelessness.

  15. ففي جمع المهاوش صار همي

    وذلك للنهابر منجنيق

    So gathering ill-gotten gains has become my concern,

    And that is a catapult into ruin.

  16. وعن سري وعن أكلي وشربي

    وملبوسي ولهوي لا أفيق

    And from my private pleasures, from my eating and drinking,

    My clothing and my diversions, I never sober up.

  17. ألا عفواً وتوفيقاً إلهي

    فحبل رجاي فيك بك الوثيق

    Oh, grant pardon and help me do right, my God!

    For the cord of my hope in You is made firm through You.