البحر يغلى كان البحر بركان

تثيره تحت فيض الماء نيران

The sea boils, as though the sea were a volcano;

Fires beneath the flood of water stir it.

والليل داج سوى مصباح هادية

له على ظلمات الليل سلطان

And the night is dark, save for a lighthouse lamp;

It holds dominion over the darkness of night.

تمزق البحر من هوجاء عاصفة

كقلب ثكلى لها في الليل ارنان

The sea was torn apart by a raging storm,

Like the heart of a bereaved mother whose wails ring through the night.

وراعت العين امواج قد اصطخبت

كأنهن عفاريت وجنان

And waves that roared in tumult terrified the eye,

As though they were demons and jinn.

في شكل مرتفع منها ومنخفض

كأنما هي كثبان ووهدان

With some of their shapes high and others low,

As though they were dunes and hollows.

وكان في ساحل الدأماء منتصباً

شخص تبين في عينيه اشجان

And on the shore of the dark sea stood

A man, with sorrows showing in his eyes.

يرنو مليا الى فلك تقاذفه

في اللج امواجه والفلك هيمان

He gazed long at a ship tossed about

In the deep by its waves, the ship distraught.

وبعد ما حالت الامواج بينهما

كأنما تلكم الامواج جدران

And after the waves had come between the two,

As though those waves were walls,

سمعته قائلا ويلي ومديداً

كما يشير إلى الاخطار لهفان

I heard him saying, 'Woe is me!' and stretching out a hand,

As he pointed to the dangers, distraught.

قد مزقته سيوف الموج مرهفة

حتى هوى فطواه اللج يختان

The keen swords of the waves had torn it apart,

Until it sank, and the deep treacherously engulfed it.

وكان قبل تواريه يصارعه

ثم اختفى وذويه ثم ما بانوا

And before vanishing, it had struggled with the sea;

Then it vanished with its people, and they never reappeared.

الفلك يحوي عزيزاً لي فوا حزني

ان بت حبل رجائي فيه فقدان

The ship holds one dear to me—oh, my grief,

If loss has severed the cord of my hope in him.

لا ينبغي ان يكون البحر قاتله

ان كان للبحر ذي الامواج وجدان

The sea ought not to be his killer,

If the sea with its waves has any feeling.

ان كان ما كنت منه قبل في وجل

فسوف تنهش مني القلب احزان

If what I once feared has come to pass,

Then sorrows will gnaw the heart out of me.

أفي استطاعة من اهوى مصارعة

للموج ام هو من جراه عيان

Can the one I love wrestle

With the waves, or is he exhausted by them?

ام ضمه البحر في احضان لجته

ام ليس للبحر مثل الام احضان

Or has the sea embraced him in the arms of its deep?

Or has the sea no embracing arms like a mother's?

وبعد ذلك ناداه يسائله

فلم يجبه سوى الامواج انسان

And after that, he called to him, asking;

But no human answered him—only the waves.

فقال بل قد ثوى في لجه غرقا

واللج قبر له والموج اكفان

Then he said: No, he lies drowned in its deep,

The deep his grave, and the waves his shrouds.

يا بحر خذني الى من انت آخذه

فانني لألى لقياه ظمآن

O sea, take me to the one you have taken,

For I thirst to meet him.

فان هلكت فمالي عنه منصرف

وان بقيت فمالي عنه سلوان

If I perish, I have no turning away from him;

And if I live, I have no solace for his loss.

ثم ارتمى باندفاع لامرد له

في البحر يقحم فيه وهو اسوان

Then he hurled himself with an irresistible rush

Into the sea, plunging into it, grief-stricken.

ان الحبيب لذي اودى الخضم به

هو القريض ومن يهواه جبران

The beloved whom the mighty sea destroyed

Is poetry, and the one who loves it is Gibran.

والبحر ليس سوى الشرق الذي اضطربت

اموره والرياح الهوج اضغان

And the sea is nothing but the East, thrown into turmoil

In its affairs; the raging winds are hatreds.

قد مات جبران مجهودا بمهجره

ولا تموت على جبران اشجان

Gibran died, worn out, in his place of exile,

And sorrows for Gibran do not die.

لبنان ثكلى جثت تبكي ابن تلعتها

وشاركتها اسى مصر وبغدان

Lebanon, a bereaved mother, knelt weeping for the son of her hillside,

And Egypt and Baghdad shared her sorrow.

جبران فارقها روحا مرفرفة

وعاد يصبو اليها وهو جثمان

Gibran left her as a fluttering spirit,

And returned yearning for her, a lifeless body.

جبران يحضنه قبر كمشفقة

والقبر تحضنه كالام لبنان

A grave embraces Gibran like a tender-hearted woman,

And Lebanon embraces the grave like a mother.

قد شيعته رجال الحكم قاطبة

وشيعته نواقيس ورهبان

The men of government, one and all, escorted him to burial,

And bells and monks escorted him to burial.

في قبره حكمة روعاء صامتة

وفوقه من صنوف الزهر الوان

In his grave is wondrous, silent wisdom,

And above him are colors of many kinds of flowers.

وفوقه عبرات غير راقئة

يسقينه ثم روح ثم ريحان

And above him are tears that never cease,

Watering him—then repose, then sweet fragrance.

ما كان جبران الا بلبلا غرداً

له على دوحه الفينان الحان

Gibran was nothing but a tuneful nightingale,

With melodies upon his luxuriant tree.

اذا ترنم يشدو فوق منبره

اصغت اليه من الآفاق آذان

When he warbled, singing from his pulpit,

Ears from the horizons listened to him.

اقرأه في دولة التجديد منفردا

حيث اسمه لكتاب الشعر عنوان

Read him, unrivaled in the realm of renewal,

Where his name is the title of the book of poetry.

ان خط سطراً فان السطر مكتبة

او قال بيتا فان البيت ديوان

If he penned a line, that line was a library;

Or spoke a verse, that verse was a poetry collection.

كم حكمة بعد ان فاه الحكيم بها

سارت بها في فجاج الارض ركبان

How many a maxim, once the sage had uttered it,

Riders carried through the earth's broad roads!

كانت لجبران ثورات مباركة

على القديم الذي يحيا وعصيان

Gibran had blessed revolts

And defiance against the old order that lives on.

اما القديم فنضناض لشرته

كأنه عندما يلقاك ثعبان

As for the old order, its malice makes it flick its tongue,

As though, when it meets you, it were a snake.

له الخلود بآثار له انتشرت

فيها جمال كضوء الصبح فتان

His immortality lies in works of his that have spread,

In them is beauty, enchanting as the light of dawn.

المرء اقدر من فوق التراب مشى

وان اكبر ما في المرء ايمان

Man is the most capable of those who tread the dust,

And the greatest thing in man is faith.

الله عون للبنان وقد ثكلت

مما تكابده في الثكل لبنان

God is Lebanon's help, now that she is bereaved,

Against what Lebanon endures in bereavement.

من ذا يجرعني كأسا مبردة

فانني من همومي اليوم حران

Who will give me a cooling cup to drink?

For today I am parched by my cares.

ان كان في الخسر لي ربح كما زعموا

فكل امر سوى الخسران خسران

If there is gain for me in loss, as they claim,

Then everything but loss is loss.

ما من مجيب وقد ناديت ملء فمي

أليس في الحي كل الحي يقظان

No one answers, though I have called at the top of my voice;

Is there no one awake in the whole community?