1. أقلع بقشّك أيها الأسطول

    إن التي هاجمت إسلامبول

    Sail away with your baggage, O fleet!

    Indeed, the city you attacked is Islambol.

  2. أتهاجم الآساد في آجامها

    وعرينها بليوثه مأهول

    Do you attack the lions in their thickets,

    While their den is inhabited by its lions?

  3. ابحرت نحو الدردنيل لفتحه

    فرأيت أن الدردنيل مهول

    You sailed toward the Dardanelles to conquer them,

    Then saw that the Dardanelles were fearsome.

  4. لا تحسب الغارات جولة سائح

    فاطرح حسابك نه ترميل

    Do not mistake raids for a tourist's outing.

    So discard your reckoning—[it is] divination in sand.

  5. يتفاخرون جهالة بعديدهم

    فليكثروا إن الكرام قليل

    They boast ignorantly of their numbers;

    So let them be many—the noble are few.

  6. فتحيروا ومن المحال إيابهم

    وتوقّفوا ومن المحال دخول

    So they were bewildered; their return was impossible,

    And they halted; entry was impossible.

  7. تلقاءهم ما لم يكن بحسابهم

    وأمامهم مستقبل مجهول

    Before them lay what they had not reckoned with,

    And ahead of them lay an unknown future.

  8. شاهدتموها والسماء تلبّدت

    ورأيتمو كيف الجبال تزول

    You witnessed it as the sky grew thick with clouds,

    And saw how the mountains vanished.

  9. هذا وان اللّه يعلم وحده

    أيان مرساها وكيف تؤول

    All this—yet God alone knows

    When it will anchor, and how it will end.

  10. كل يؤمل من وراها حظوة

    والغيب عنده ذلك المأمول

    Everyone hopes for favor in its wake,

    And that hoped-for boon lies in the unseen.

  11. فمتى تحط عن الورى أوزارها

    ما العيش إلا الحلم والتأويل

    When, then, will it lift its burdens from humankind?

    Life is nothing but dream and interpretation.

  12. نقضي الحياة على تنازعنا البقا

    والكل عنه في غد مسؤول

    We spend our lives struggling with one another for survival,

    And everyone will be answerable for it tomorrow.

  13. ما الحق يعرف يومها دون امترا

    ويطابق المنقول والمعقول

    What is truth? That day it will be known without doubt,

    And it will accord with both tradition and reason.

  14. ويصاخ بالإذعان للأمر الذي

    قد قاله للأنبيا التنزيل

    And submissive heed will be paid to the command that

    Revelation has declared to the prophets.

  15. فدع ابن دنيا الان في غفلاته

    حتى يفيق لأنه مثمول

    So leave the son of this world in his heedlessness for now,

    Until he sobers up, for he is drunk.