درى الدهراي غشمشم أردى

وأيّ شمام لهاشم هدّا

Did Time know what fearless warrior it slew?

And what a Shamam of Hashim it laid low!

ويا هل درى أي مارنَ دقَّ

وأية كفّ أطار وزندا

And, oh, did it know what nose-tip it crushed,

And what hand—and forearm—it sent flying?

أما آن للدهر أن يستردا

فيلوي وعيداً وينجز وعدا

Is it not time for Time to withdraw,

To retract a threat and fulfill a promise?

هو الدهر لأسهمه يُتقى

وإن قيل نهنه رمى السهم عمدا

It is Time, feared for its arrows;

Even when told, "Desist!" it shoots its arrow deliberately.

فما عاد إلا أصاب واصمي

وما كفّ إلا أعاد وأبدى

It never returned without striking and killing outright,

Nor held back without renewing and displaying its might.

وما ناب إلا انثنى ظافرا

يحكم ظفرا وناب أحدّا

It never descended without returning victorious,

Firmly wielding a claw and a sharper fang.

وما نحن إلا كشاء الرعاة

يروِّعُنا الموت شلّاً وطردا

We are nothing but the shepherds' sheep;

Death frightens us, driving us off and chasing us.

وما الموت إلا كغرب الحسام

فما غبَّ إلا ليأكل غمدا

Death is nothing but a sword's cutting edge;

It withdraws only to devour a scabbard.

ولا بدّ للمرء من كبرة

وأنّي ولم يلف عن ذاك بدّا

A person cannot escape old age;

And how could he, finding no escape from it?

وهل يُفلتُ المرء من صرعةٍ

يوسّد فيها على الترب خدّا

Can a person escape a fall

In which his cheek is pillowed on the dust?

فليت بنات ليالي الخطو

ب تمنِّع وصلا وتمنح صدا

Would that the daughters of calamity's nights

Would withhold union and grant estrangement.

وأعظمُ ما هدّ ركن الجلاد

وأوهن عظماً ومزّق جلدا

And the gravest blow to shatter fortitude's pillar,

Weaken bone and tear skin,

وجدّد ثوب عنّا مُخلقا

واخلق ثوبَ عُلىً مستجدّا

Renew a threadbare robe of suffering,

And wear out a newly donned robe of eminence,

مصاب أصاب أهيل الغري

وغار فطبَّق غورا ونجدا

Was the calamity that struck the dear people of al-Ghari,

And swept down, covering lowland and highland.

رمى مضرا وقريش البطاح

وصكّ نزار العلى ومعدّا

It struck Mudar and Quraysh of the broad valleys,

And smote glorious Nizar and Maadd.

بما رد خطبٍ دهى الخافقين

مشيباً فلم يعدُ شيباً ومردا

With a monstrous calamity that afflicted the two horizons,

Bringing gray hair, sparing neither old men nor beardless youths.

طوى من غوارب بحر العلوم

خضمّاً إذا جزر البحر مدّا

It folded away, from the crests of learning's sea,

A vast ocean that surged whenever the sea ebbed.

وما غاض حتى اكتست من ندى

يديه الأباطح شيحا ورندا

Nor did it ebb until, through the dew of

His hands, the valley plains were clothed in wormwood and laurel.

لقد فلّ مقضب شرع النبي

وقطع بالرغم للدين سردا

It blunted the keen sword of the Prophet's law,

And, against our will, severed faith's chain mail.

وأصدأ إفرند صقل الحسام

فاثكل غرب الحسام الفرندا

And rusted the watered sheen of the polished sword,

Thus bereaving the sword's edge of its watered sheen.

قضى من يرد عوادي الخطوب

ويلجم منها أقبّ ونهدا

Gone is he who repelled calamities' onslaughts,

And bridled their lean and powerful steeds.

قضى مَن إذا اعتركت رَوعةٌ

أعدّ جنانا لدى الروع جلدا

Gone is he who, whenever terror raged,

Readied a steadfast heart in the face of fear.

مُرمّاً يصافح وجه الثرى

بوجه كشقة بدرٍ تبدّى

Decaying, he clasps the face of the earth,

With a face like a segment of the full moon unveiled.

وما كنت أحسب ثغر المنون

يُعلق فيه نواجذَ دردا

I never thought the mouth of death

Would sink its toothless molars into him.

بيوم أطال غليل الصدور

وقلَّص عن ساق ذي الفضل بُردا

On a day that prolonged the burning thirst of breasts,

And drew the cloak up from the virtuous man's shin.

تعطل بعدك جيد العلوم

وقد كنت في منحر الفضل عقدا

After you, learning's neck was left unadorned;

You had been a necklace at excellence's throat.

فيا بدر هلا أقابل بدراً

لوجهك أم هل أطالعُ سعدا

O full moon, might I not meet a full moon

To match your face—or shall I behold a lucky star?

فقدتك فقد الربيع الغمام

وقد غبّ صوبُ الغمام فاكدى

I lost you as spring loses rainclouds,

And the clouds' rain had ceased, leaving it barren.

فبعدك لم استرب بالخطوب

ولست أعادي زماناً تعدى

After you, I no longer mistrust calamities,

Nor do I oppose a time that has transgressed.

وهل اشمخنَّ بأنف أشم

وأضمر بعدُ على الدهر حقدا

Shall I hold high a proud, aquiline nose,

And still harbor resentment against Time?

بقيتُ أخادع كيد الزمان

وأمشي على الدهر عكساً وطردا

I remain outwitting time's schemes,

And walking through Time, backward and forward.

كأني امتطيت قرى ضالع

تدحرج يطلب في السير وخدا

As though I had mounted the back of a limping beast,

Tumbling along, seeking a brisk gait in its travel.

وكم عزة لك قعساً أبت

طلابي من مشرع الذل وردا

How often your unyielding dignity refused

My seeking a drink from humiliation's watering place.

لعزّ على المجد أن يكثر ال

عويل بيوم بعد المجد أودى

It grieved glory that there should be so much

Lament on a day when, after glory, he perished.

لئن غاب بدرُ هدى نيرٌ

هدينا ببدر هدىً منه أهدى

Though a radiant full moon of guidance has vanished,

We are guided by a moon of guidance that guides better than he.

فتى جمع الفضل أطرافه

علاءً وعلما وهزلاً وجدا

A youth who gathered every aspect of excellence,

In eminence, learning, jest, and earnestness.

فتىً عُقمَ الدهر عن مثله

فعاش كمثل الجمانة فردا

A youth whose like Time was too barren to beget,

So he lived peerless, like a single pearl.

فيا ابن المغاوير من هاشم

ضواري تضري على الزجر هدا

O son of the fearless warriors of Hashim,

Fierce beasts that grow fiercer at restraint, roaring;

وضخم المناكب من زاحموا

مناط الكواكب عزا ومجدا

And of the broad-shouldered men who vied with

The stars' lofty stations in might and glory.

تراهم إذا اعترضوا في اللقا

شناخيب شمّاً صياخيد صلدا

You see them, when they stand forth in battle,

Lofty peaks, towering; massive rocks, unyielding.

مطاعينُ جردا مطاعيم بزلا

مواهيب عرفا مكاسيب حمدا

Spearing sleek steeds, feasting others on mature camels,

Lavish givers of kindness, abundant earners of praise.

ردِ الصبر واعلم بأن الردى

فما اعتدّ إلا أصاب وأردى

Turn to patience, and know that death

Never readies itself without striking and slaying.

وكفكف دموعك فهو الحمام

يمرّ فلم يبق حرّاً وعبدا

And check your tears, for it is death;

It passes, leaving neither free man nor slave.

ولم ينج من سامهُ خطة

وإن جرّ مجرىً وسوّمُ جردا

Nor did anyone escape on whom it imposed an ordeal,

Even if he led a vast army and sent sleek steeds forth.

ولم يبق منا على حاسر

ولا دارع أحكم الزعف شدا

It spared no unarmored man among us,

Nor an armored man who bound his fine chain mail tight.

وسيان منا امرء أعزل

وشاكٍ له بالسلاح استعدا

Alike among us are an unarmed man

And an armed man, prepared for it with weapons.

وما ضرَّ من قد مضى محرزا

أباً كعليٍّ وأحمد جدا

No harm befell one who passed away, possessing

A father like Ali and Ahmad as a grandfather.