1. دَع النَّدامةَ لا يذهب بك النَّدَمُ

    فَلستَ أَوَّلَ من زَلَّت به قَدمُ

    Leave remorse; let regret not carry you away.

    For you are not the first whose foot has slipped.

  2. هيَ المَقاديرُ والأَحكامُ جاريةٌ

    وَللمهيمن في أَحكامه حِكمُ

    It is fate, and decrees are taking their course,

    And the All-Overseeing One has wisdom in His judgments.

  3. خفِّض عليك فما حالٌ بباقيةٍ

    هَيهات لا نعمٌ تَبقى ولا نِقمُ

    Be gentle with yourself, for no condition endures.

    Far from it! Neither blessings nor afflictions remain.

  4. قد كنتَ بالأمس في عزٍّ وفي دعةٍ

    حيث السرورُ وصفو العيش والنِعمُ

    Yesterday you were in honor and ease,

    Where there were joy, life's serenity, and blessings.

  5. وَاليوم أَنتَ بدار الذلِّ مُمتهنٌ

    صفرُ اليدين فلا بأسٌ ولا كَرَمُ

    And today, in the abode of humiliation, you are degraded,

    Empty-handed, with neither might nor generosity.

  6. كأَنَّ سَيفكَ لم تلمع بوارقُه

    وَغيث سَيبك لمتهمَع له ديمُ

    As though your sword's lightning flashes had never gleamed,

    And your bounty's rain had never poured in steady showers.

  7. ما كانَ أَغناكَ عن حِلٍّ ومرتحلٍ

    لَولا القَضاءُ وما قد خطَّه القَلَمُ

    How little need you had to halt or travel,

    But for fate and what the Pen had already written.

  8. يا سفرةً أَسفرت عن كُلِّ بائقةٍ

    لا أَنتجت بعدكَ المهريَّةُ الرُسُمُ

    O journey that laid bare every calamity!

    May the swift Mahri she-camels bear no young after you!

  9. حللتُ في سوح قومٍ لا خلاقَ لهم

    سيان عندهم الأَنوارُ والظُلَمُ

    I alighted in the precincts of a people with no virtue,

    To whom light and darkness are alike.

  10. تَسطو بأسدِ الشَرى فيها ثعالبُها

    وَالصقرُ تصطادُه الغربانُ والرخَمُ

    There their foxes attack the lions of al-Shara,

    And crows and vultures hunt the falcon.

  11. وَيفضل الغمدُ يوَ الفخر صارمه

    وَتَستَطيلُ على ساداتها الخدمُ

    And on the day of boasting, the scabbard surpasses its sharp sword,

    And servants lord it over their masters.

  12. إِن لَم يبن لهم فضلي فلا عَجبٌ

    فَلَيسَ يُطربُ شادٍ من به صمَمُ

    If my merit is not clear to them, it is no wonder:

    A singer cannot delight someone who is deaf.

  13. أَو أَنكروا في العُلى قدري فقد شهدت

    حتماً بما أَنكَروه العُربُ والعجمُ

    Or if they deny my exalted rank, witness has been borne

    Assuredly to what they denied, by Arabs and non-Arabs.

  14. ما شانَ شأني مقامي بين أَظهرهم

    فالتبرُ في التُرب لم تنقص له قيمُ

    My dwelling among them has not sullied my standing,

    For gold in the dust loses none of its value.

  15. لا تعجبوا لهمومي إِن برت جسدي

    وأَصبحت نارُها في القلب تَضطَرِمُ

    Do not marvel at my cares if they wear away my body,

    And their fire has come to blaze within my heart.

  16. فهمُّ كلِّ امرئٍ مقدار همَّته

    وَلَيسَ يفترقان الهَمُّ والهِمَمُ

    For each man's care is equal to his aspiration,

    And care and aspirations do not part.

  17. لا كانَ لي في رقاب المعتفين يدٌ

    ولا سعت بي إلى نحو العُلى قَدمُ

    May no favor of mine bind the necks of supplicants,

    And may no foot have borne me toward the heights,

  18. إِن لم أَشقَّ عُباب البحر ممتطياً

    هوجاءَ لَيسَ لها عقلٌ ولا خطمُ

    If I do not cleave the sea's billows, riding

    A headlong vessel with neither hobbles nor nose-reins.

  19. أَمّا الركابُ فقد أَوليتُهنَّ قِلىً

    وَالخَيلُ لا قرعت أَشداقَها اللُجمُ

    As for riding-camels, I have given them my aversion,

    And horses—may bits never strike their jaws!

  20. ما زِلتُ أَطوي عليها كلَّ مقفرة

    يهماء لا نُصُبٌ فيها ولا عَلَمُ

    I kept traversing on them every desolate tract,

    Pathless, with neither marker nor landmark.

  21. فَلَم أَنَل عندها مِمّا أُؤمِّلُه

    إِلّا أَمانيَّ نفس كلُّها حُلمُ

    Yet with them I obtained nothing of what I hoped for,

    Except a soul's wishes, all of them a dream.

  22. يا للرِجال لخطب جلَّ فادحُه

    حتّى المعارفُ ضاعَت عندها الذممُ

    O men, help against a calamity whose crushing burden is immense!

    Even among acquaintances, bonds of honor have been lost.

  23. ما إِن وثقت بخلّ أَو أَخي ثقةٍ

    إِلّا دَهاني بخطب شرُّه عَممُ

    Never did I trust a friend or a trustworthy brother

    Without his afflicting me with a calamity whose evil was all-encompassing.

  24. وكُلُّ ذي رَحمٍ أَوليتُه صلةً

    شكت إِلى رَبِّها من قطعِه الرَحِمُ

    And every kinsman to whom I showed kindness—

    Kinship complained to its Lord of his severing it.

  25. هَذا اِبنُ أُمّي الَّذي راعيت قربتَه

    ما كانَ عِندي بسوء الظنِّ يُتَّهمُ

    This son of my mother, whose kinship I honored,

    Was never, in my eyes, an object of suspicion.

  26. أَدنيتُه نظراً مني لحرمته

    وَذو الديانة للأَرحام يحترمُ

    I drew him close out of regard for the respect due him,

    And a man of faith respects kinship ties.

  27. أَضحى لِعرضي مَع الأَعداءِ منتهكاً

    وَراحَ للمال قبلَ الناسِ يلتهمُ

    He came to violate my honor alongside my enemies,

    And rushed to devour my wealth before anyone else.

  28. ما صانَ لي نسباً يوماً ولا نشباً

    ولا رَعى لي عهوداً نقضُها يَصِمُ

    He never once safeguarded my kinship or my wealth,

    Nor kept for me pledges whose breach brings disgrace.

  29. قَد كنتُ أَحسبه بالغيب يحفظني

    وَلَو زوانيَ عنه المَوتُ والعدمُ

    I had thought he would protect me in my absence,

    Even if death and nonexistence removed me from him.

  30. حتّى إِذا غبتُ عنه قامَ منتهباً

    داري وراح لما خلَّفتُ يغتنمُ

    Yet when I was absent from him, he rose to plunder

    My home, and set about seizing what I had left.

  31. تاللَه ما فعلَ الأَعداءُ فعلتَه

    كلّا ولا اِهتَضَموا ما ظلَّ يهتضمُ

    By God, my enemies never did what he did,

    No, nor did they seize unjustly what he kept seizing.

  32. هلّا نَهاهُ نُهاه أَو حفيظتُه

    عن سلب ما حُلّي النسوانُ والحُرَمُ

    Why did his reason or his sense of honor not restrain him

    From stealing what adorned the women and wives?

  33. وافى بهنَّ وما أَوفى بذمَّته

    سُلباً عواطلَ لا سورٌ ولا خَدمُ

    He came with them, yet did not honor his pledge—

    Stripped and unadorned, without bracelets or anklets.

  34. أَين الفتوةُ إِن لم يَنهَهُ ورَعٌ

    وَلَم يَخَف غبَّ ما قد راح يجترمُ

    Where is chivalry, if piety did not restrain him,

    And he did not fear the aftermath of the crimes he went on committing?

  35. هبه أَضاعَ إِخائي غير محتشمٍ

    أَلَيسَ عن دون هَذا المَرءُ يحتَشِمُ

    Suppose he cast aside my brotherhood without shame—

    Does a man not feel shame at less than this?

  36. كأَنَّه كان مطويّاً على إِحنٍ

    فَعِندما غبتُ عنه راح ينتقمُ

    As though he had been harboring grudges,

    So when I was absent from him, he set about taking revenge.

  37. ما كانَ هَذا جَزائي إذ رَعيتُ له

    حقَّ الإخاءِ ولكن للورَى شيمُ

    This was not my reward when I upheld for him

    The right of brotherhood—but people have their ways.

  38. فَقُل سَلامٌ على الأَرحام ضائعةً

    فَقَد لعمري أَضاعَت حقَّها الأُمَمُ

    So say: farewell to kinship ties, left abandoned,

    For, by my life, the peoples have squandered their due.