1. يا ربع نَكّرك الأحداث والقدم

    فصار عينك كالآثار تتهم

    O dwelling, calamities and age have made you unrecognizable.

    Your very form has become like traces, called into doubt.

  2. كأنما رسمك السرّ الذي لهم

    عندي ونؤيك صبري الدارس الهدم

    As though your outline were the secret belonging to them,

    kept with me, and your trench my patience, effaced and ruined.

  3. كأنما سفعة الأثقى باقية

    بين الرياض قطاجونية جثم

    As though the hearthstones' lingering dark stain [reading uncertain]

    were dusky sandgrouse crouching among the meadows,

  4. أو حسرة بقيت في القلب مظلمة

    عن حاجة ما اقتضوها أذهم أمم

    or a sorrow remaining dark within the heart,

    over a need they never fulfilled—dark and near [reading uncertain].

  5. ألا بكاه سحاب دمعه همع

    بالرعد مزدفر بالبرق مبتسم

    Would that a cloud wept over it, its tears pouring,

    sighing with thunder, smiling with lightning.

  6. لم لا يجدها سحاب جودها ديم

    من الدموع الهوامي كلهن دم

    Why does no cloud find it, its bounty steady rains

    of streaming tears, every one of them blood?

  7. ليت الطلول أجابت من به أبداً

    فى حبهم صحة في بغضهم سقم

    If only the ruins answered one in whom there is always

    health in loving them, sickness in hating them.

  8. أو علّها بلسان الحال ناطقة

    قد تفهم الحال ما لا تفهم الكلم

    Or perhaps they speak in the language of their condition;

    a condition can convey what words cannot.

  9. أما ترى شيبتى تنبيك ناطقة

    بأنّ حدّى الذى استذلقته ثلم

    Do you not see my gray hair speaking to tell you

    that the edge I honed has been blunted?

  10. الشيب يوعد والآمال واعدة

    والمرء يغترّ والأيام تنصرم

    Gray hair threatens, while hopes make promises;

    and man is beguiled while the days slip away.

  11. مالى أرى حكم الأفعال ساقطة

    وأسمع الدهر قولا كله حكم

    Why do I see the wisdom of deeds cast aside,

    yet hear Time speak words that are all wisdom?

  12. ما لى أرى الفضل فضلا يستهان به

    قد أكرم النقص لمّا اتنقض الكرم

    Why do I see excellence treated as excess, held in contempt?

    Deficiency is honored, now that nobility has crumbled.

  13. جولت في هذه الدنيا وزخرفها

    عينى فألفيت داراً ما بها أرم

    I ranged through this world and its finery

    with my eye, and found a dwelling with not a soul in it,

  14. كجيفة دوّدت والدود منشؤها

    منها ومنها ترى الأرزاء والطعم

    like a worm-ridden carcass, whose worms arise

    from it; from it you see afflictions and sustenance.

  15. سيّان عندي أن برّوا وإن فجروا

    فليس يجرى على أمثالهم قلم

    It is all one to me whether they act righteously or wickedly:

    for no pen passes judgment on their like.

  16. لا تحسدنهم إن جُدّوا بجَدّهم

    فالجِدّ يجدى ولكن ماله عصم

    Do not envy them if they prosper through their good fortune;

    for diligence brings gain, but has no safeguards.

  17. ليسوا وإن نعموا عيشاً سوى نعم

    وربّما نعمت في عيشها النعم

    Though they live in ease, they are nothing but livestock;

    and livestock, too, may enjoy an easy life.

  18. الواجدون غنى والعادمون نهى

    هل الذي وجدوا مثل الذي عدموا

    Possessors of wealth, but lacking understanding—

    is what they possess like what they lack?

  19. خلقت فيهم وأيضا قد خلطت بهم

    فليس فيهم غنى عنهم ولا بهم

    I was created among them, and have also been mingled with them;

    yet among them there is no sufficiency, either without them or through them.

  20. أسكنت بينهم كالليث في الأجم

    رأيت ليثاً له من جنسه أجم

    I was lodged among them like a lion in thickets;

    I saw a lion whose thickets were of his own kind.

  21. إنى وإن كان عنى من بليت به

    في عينه كمه في أذنه صمم

    I—even though the one I am afflicted with, as regards me,

    has blindness in his eye and deafness in his ear—

  22. مميّز من بنى الدنيا يميزني

    أقلّ ما فيّ ليس الجلّ والعظم

    am distinguished from the world's sons; what distinguishes me

    is the least of my qualities, not the greatest and mightiest.

  23. بأى مأثرة ينقاس بي أحد

    بأى مكرمة تحكينى الأمم

    By what glorious deed can anyone be measured against me?

    By what noble deed can nations rival me?

  24. أمثل عنجهة شوكاء يلحق بى

    أو مثل شغبر حش عرضه زيم

    Can the likes of thorny arrogance catch up with me,

    or a withered jackal cub, his honor in tatters?

  25. فذا عجوز ولكن بعد ما قعدت

    وذاك جود مشاع الملك مستهم

    For this one is an old woman, but already past her courses;

    and that one is bounty, held in common and allotted by lot.

  26. إنى وإن كانت الأقلام تخدمنى

    كذاك يخدم كفى الصارم الخذم

    As for me, though pens serve me,

    the keen, slicing sword likewise serves my hand.

  27. قد أشهد الروع مرتاحاً فأكشفه

    إذا تناكص عن تيّاره الهم

    I face terror gladly and dispel it,

    when the valiant recoil before its surge.

  28. الضرب محتدم والطعن منتظم

    والدمع مرتكم والبأس مغتلم

    Blows rage, and thrusts come in succession;

    tears pile up, and battle-fury surges.

  29. والجوّ يافوخه من نقعهم قتر

    والأفق فسطاطه من سفكهم قتم

    The sky's crown is hazed by their dust,

    and the horizon's tent is darkened by their bloodshed.

  30. والبيض والسمر حمر تحت غبرته

    والموت يحكم والأبطال تختصم

    White swords and brown spears are red beneath its dust;

    and death gives judgment while the champions contend.

  31. واعدل القسم في حربى وحربهم

    منهم لنا غنم منّا لهم غرم

    I divide fairly in my battle and theirs:

    from them comes our gain; from us comes their loss.

  32. أمّا البلاغة فاسألنى الخبير بها

    أنا اللسان قديماً والزمان فم

    As for eloquence, ask me, its expert:

    long have I been the tongue, and Time the mouth.

  33. لا يعلم غيرى معلماً علما

    لأهله أنا ذاك المعلم العلم

    No one but me teaches a teacher knowledge;

    for its people, I am that teacher, that beacon.

  34. كانت قناة علوم الحق عاطلة

    حتى جلاها بشر البند والعلم

    The lance of the sciences of truth stood unadorned,

    until the gladness of pennant and banner made it shine [reading uncertain].

  35. نبيد أرواحهم بالرعب نقذفه

    فيهم وأجسادهم بالقضب تلتحم

    We annihilate their souls with terror that we hurl

    into them, while their bodies lock against the blades.

  36. ماتت أنالة ذا الدهر اللقاح على

    عزائمى وأسفت بى لها الهيم

    The bounty of this unbridled age died upon [reading uncertain]

    my resolves; thirst-crazed camels bore me low toward it [reading uncertain].

  37. لو شبت كان الذى لو شئت بحت به

    مالخوف أسكت بل إن تلزم الحشم

    If I grew gray, it was from what I could reveal, if I wished;

    I am silent not from fear, but because modesty binds [reading uncertain].

  38. ولو وجدت طلوع الشمس متسعا

    لحط رجل غريمى كنت أغترم

    And if I found, at sunrise, room enough

    to set my rival's foot down, I would bear the cost;

  39. ولو بكت غير ما بى دونها الحشم

    ولم يغم سبيلى نحوها الغمم

    and if she wept for other than what ails me, with retainers before her [wording unclear],

    and clouds did not obscure my path toward her,

  40. وكانت البيض ظلف للغمودله

    وقد تشاغل عرض الحيد والحكم

    and white swords were hooves for his scabbards [reading uncertain],

    and the expanse of evasion and judgment was distracted [wording unclear],

  41. وظن أن ليس تحجيل سوى شعر

    وإن للخيل في ميلادها اللجم

    and it was thought that white leg-markings were merely hair,

    and that horses have bridles at their birth,

  42. وغشيت صفحات الأرض معدلة

    فالأسد تنفر عن مرعى به غنم

    and justice overspread the earth's expanses,

    then lions would flee a pasture containing sheep.

  43. لكنّها بقعة حفّ الشتاء بها

    فكل صاغ إليها صاغر سدم

    But it is a place that winter has surrounded,

    so everyone drawn to it is abased and sorrowful.