الليل ينقص أو يزيد قليلا

والناس ناس بكرة وأصيلا

The night shortens or lengthens a little.

And people are people, morning and evening.

والشاش يُنشر أو يُلفّ وكم هوى

لفّاً ونشراً ناشفاً مبلولا

And muslin is spread out or rolled up, and how often it has fallen,

Rolled up and spread out, dry and wet.

والموز يطلع في الغيوط مُعرجناً

قد طلّ من أغصانه طلولا

And the banana grows in the fields in bunches,

It has peeped from its branches, peeping out.

كم لو لحت رؤوس النخيل بلحلحاً

فتفتلت أليافها حبلولا

How often the palm-crowns have waved their datey-dates,

So their fibers twisted into a ropey-rope.

للكرم أوراق تروق وعنب

يُرمَى نُوَاه إذ غدا مأكولا

The vine has leaves that please, and grapes;

Their seeds are thrown away once the grapes are eaten.

عنقوده المسوّد ذا مثل الدُّجى

تحكي بُعوراً كُلّلَت تَكليلا

This blackened bunch of its is like the dark of night,

Resembling dung-pellets, thoroughly wreathed.

لا تحسبوني كنت مثل صغاركم

ولا أكلت إذا انفطمت بليلا

Do not think I was like your little ones,

Nor that I ate boiled wheat when I was weaned.

وشربت من قلّة تبقبق لم أخف

وأكلت كما قد حُشي فتلولا

And I drank from a gurgling jug without fear,

And I ate a fatlūl, just as it had been stuffed.

ولبست سرموزا وكانت فردتين

يُمنى اليمين وأختها الشملولا

And I wore slippers, which were two separate shoes:

A right one for the right foot, and its lefty-left sister.

ورأيت فقس حمامتي إذ فرّخت

زغلولة وأخَيّها زغلولا

And I saw my pigeon's brood when she hatched her young:

A female squab, and her little brother, a male squab.

يا بخت أمي بي الا يا سعدها

فازت بابن قد نما عقلولا

How lucky my mother is to have me—ah, what good fortune!

She has won a son whose brainy-brain has grown!