ما بنا خوف اذا الموت دنا

نحن للموت كما الموت لنا

We have no fear when death draws near.

We belong to death, just as death belongs to us.

سيغوصن بنا مركبنا

في خضم قد ابى ان يسكنا

Our vessel will surely sink with us

into a vast sea that has refused to grow calm.

دب فيه الماء من شق به

فهو حتى عن طفو وهنا

Water has seeped in through a crack in it;

so it has grown too weak even to float.

ما جنى الفلك ولا ربانه

غير ان القدر الاعمى جنى

Neither the ship nor its captain has done wrong;

only blind fate has done wrong.

كلنا ننتظر الموت به

زاحما آخرنا اولنا

We all await death aboard it,

the last of us crowding against the first.

واذا نحن نكصنا عنه لم

يك هذا النكص الا جبنا

And if we recoil from it, it would not

be anything but cowardice, this retreat.

انت يازخار جبار ولا

يبطش الجبار الا علنا

You, O surging sea, are a tyrant, and never

does a tyrant strike except in the open.

ادفنينا فيك يا لجته

كلنا مرتقب ان يدفنا

Bury us within you, O depths of the sea;

each of us awaits being buried.

مرحباً بالموت اني جاء ان

لم يكن بد من الموت لنا

Welcome to death, however it comes, if

there is no escape from death for us.

لا نبالي بعد ان حم الردى

أهناك الموت وافى ام هنا

We do not care, once death is decreed,

whether death arrives there or here.

ليس الا خطوة ما بيننا

وسنخطوها فرادى وثنى

Only a step stands between us and death,

and we shall take it, singly and in pairs.

ها هي الشمس بدت بازغة

يا له من مشهد قد فتنا

Look, there is the sun, rising into view.

What a sight—it has enchanted us!

اسمحي ان نتملى ضوءها

قبل ان نغمض منا الاعينا

Allow us to gaze our fill upon its light

before we close our eyes.

اطفأ اليأس كريح صرصر

عصفت آخر ومض للمنى

Despair has quenched, like a fierce, howling wind

that raged, the last glimmer of hope.

ما لقوم نسلتهم هلك

في النهايات عن الموت غنى

For a people begotten by the dead, there is no

escape from death in the end.

تألم الروح اذ ما زهقت

انما الروح تحب البدنا

The soul feels pain when it departs;

indeed, the soul loves the body.

قد تركنا خلفنا اوطاننا

ثم انا لا نلاقي الوطنا

We have left our homelands behind us,

and we shall not see our homeland again.

وسينعانا الى الاهل النعا

ة فيبكون علينا حزنا

And the death-announcers will report our deaths to our families,

so they will weep for us in sorrow.

وكأن يوم ودعناهم

قد ركبنا للمنايا السفنا

And it is as though, on the day we bade them farewell,

we had boarded ships bound for death.

لا يقاسى شجنا ميت

ولكنما الحي يقاسي الشجنا

A dead person suffers no sorrow,

but the living suffer sorrow.

ما حياة المرء الا يقظة

بين نومين له فيها العنا

A person's life is but a wakeful interval

between two sleeps, in which hardship is one's lot.

وهي ما زالت لنا محبوبة

لا نرى الفرقة منها هينا

And it remains beloved to us;

we do not consider parting from it easy.

وسنردى واذا جاء الردى

لا يحيينا من الشمس السنى

And we shall perish; and when death comes,

the sun's radiance will not bring us back to life.

فوداعا لك يا دنيا سنتركها

عما قليل خلفنا

So farewell to you, O world, which we shall leave

behind us before long.