أحديثُ نَفسي أم سَمَر

أم بعضُ وسوسَةِ الفِكَر

Is this my soul conversing or night talk

Or some whisper of thought

أم سوءُ ظنِّ المُشفقين

فأين أنتَ أبا عُمَر

Or evil suspicion of the anxious

So where are you Abu Umar

هيهاتَ لا واللَهِ ما

كذَبَ العيانُ ولا الخَبَر

Never, by God, neither sight

Nor news have lied

ولقد رأيتُ مجالسَ الر

رُؤساءِ أفنِيةَ الحُفَر

And I saw the councils of benevolence

The leaders of dugout courtyards

وعجبتُ إذ جَزِعوا وكا

نَ بهم تصبُّرُ من صَبَر

And I wondered when they panicked and it was

As if patience poured into them

وهم جبالُ النائِبا

تِ إذا الزمانُ بِها استَمَر

And they are mountains of vicissitudes

When time persists with them

حَملَت نفوسهمُ الأسى

عنهم وعن قَومٍ أُخَر

Their souls carried sorrow

Away from them and from other people

لم تمضِ قبلكَ نكبةٌ

ما أثَّروا فيها أثَر

No calamity before you

In which they made an impact

لكنَّه السببُ الذي

بينَ المنيَّةِ والبَشَر

But it is the cause that

Lies between death and mortals

لا يَنقَضي خيرٌ فخَي

راً كان أو شرٌّ فَشَر

No good ends in good

Or evil in evil

للَهِ قبرُك ما حوى

وله سَريرُكَ ما أسَر

To God is your grave, what it contained

And to Him your place of rest, what it concealed

ولقد هَممتُ بأن أقو

لَ سُقيتَ يا قَبرُ المَطَر

And I had intended to say

You were watered, O grave, by the rain

ورأيتُ تحتَ ثراكَ ما

يُدعى بِه لك لو ظَهَر

And I saw beneath your soil what

Would be invoked for you, had it appeared