كأن دموع النفس في نحرها سِلكُ

غداةَ يناديها الفراقُ وهي تشكو

As if the tears of the soul were threaded in its throat

When parting called it in the morning while it complained

أسيرة فعلٍ ساءه سوء فاعلٍ

يُسيء بمفعولٍ وليس لها فكُّ

A prisoner of an act made ugly by an evil doer

Who does evil with an object and it has no release

عشية عمرٍ قد تقضَّى صباحُه

بِكَرِّ الليالي والملاهي به فَتكُ

The eve of a lifetime whose morning had passed

In the prime of nights and enjoyments therein vanished

وقد كشَّر الموتُ الردى عن نواجذٍ

فلا حبذا سنٌّ ولا حبذا فكُّ

And death bared the decay from its white hairs

So neither youth is good nor disengagement is good

وقَرطَسَ في قرطاسه كُنهُ خاطري

فآدمُ لي التقليدُ برهانُه الصكُّ

And he wrote the essence of my thoughts in his paper

So human tradition proved it to me with its writ

أقول لنفسي وهي فوق فراشِها

تجودُ ونارُ الحشر في إثرها تذكو

I say to myself as it is above its bed

Being generous and the fire of resurrection kindling behind it

فإن أحسنت فازت بما حسنَت وإن

أساءت فقد خابت فعاجلَها الضنك

If it did good it succeeds in what it did good

And if it did evil it surely failed so hardship afflicted it

هبيني ظفرتُ بالذي قد هويتُه

فأين الحجى والعلم والجاه والملك

Grant me success for that which I craved

Then where is pride, and knowledge, and prestige, and possession

لقد زال ما أهواه مذ زُلْتُ قبله

وأعلمني موتي به أنه إفك

What I loved is gone since I declined before it

And my death informed me of it that it is a delusion

فآخرُ لذّاتي الفضيحةُ والحيا

ولا خير في اللذات آخرها الهتك

So the last of my pleasures is scandal and shame

And there is no good in pleasures whose end is exposure

وما زالت الأيام تُخلِقُ جِدَّتي

فأوَّلها وبلٌ وآخرها ركُّ

And the days have not ceased to make me old

Its beginning is affliction and its end is vileness

وقد مزقت عني شعارَ شبيبتي

كظبيٍ تَفَصَّي عن جوارحه المِسك

And it tore from me the mantle of my youth

Like a gazelle stripped of its skin the musk

ذريني فإن الموت بالباب واقفٌ

يعاركني حتى وهَى مهجتي العَرك

Leave me be for death is standing at the door

Assailing me until it threw down my brain

وأضحى بذيل العمر منيَ ماسكاً

وأي مناصٍ لي وقد غالني المَسك

And it took to the tail of my life holding it

And what escape is there for me when the holder has overcome me