1. O my beloved, those who suffer lied
I am alive in the spiritual world

2. For my soul is my poetry and my poetry does not die
So whoever understands it, time's oblivion passes him by

3. My people made me weep but my soul never smiled
Except when those who made me weep began to cry

4. I cannot forget when my doctor grew hot
Striking my temples again and again

5. Whispering to my people around me
That my death was nearing in mere moments

6. And the priest came to me afterward, reading
The prayer of forgiveness over me

7. And I saw tears clinging
To every eyelid around me

8. It was as if I saw my own funeral before me
As if I was wrapped in my own shroud

9. Life was revealed to me, with what was in it
Of dreams passing through tumult

10. Glory, money, and false glory
Are all transient, for what meanings they contain

11. Those who worship them die when excellence comes
Between souls and bodies

12. Their souls fade away like their glory
And their pleasures vanish like smoke

13. And they, in death, find awesome horror
Murderous, prevailing over man

14. Life to them is riches, and bombardment, and dancing, and singing
And death to them is to be far from animal pleasures

15. If this world were empty of them
We would find in it the bliss of heavens

16. If this world were empty of them
It would be empty of sorrows' causes

17. O vulgar, earthly world, may you perish
For no poet remains in your land

18. We are of an immortal lineage that remains
While you are the vile, ephemeral mortal

19. Death for us is the most beloved wish
And women's wailing the best songs

20. For in death is a joy denied
To the souls in the bones of Lebanon