أحاط جودُك بالدُّنيا فليس له

إلا المُحيطُ مثالٌ حين يُعتَبرُ

Your generosity has encompassed the world; it has no

likeness, when considered, except the encircling ocean.

وما حسبتُ بأن الكلَّ يحمُله

بعضٌ ولا كاملاً يَحويه مُختصَر

Never had I imagined that the whole could be borne by

a part, or the complete contained within an abridgment.

لم تَثْنِ عنك يداً أرجاءُ ضفَّته

إلا ومَّدت يداً أرجاؤُه الأَخر

No reaches of one shore ever turned a hand away from you

without the reaches of the other stretching forth a hand.

كأنّما البحرُ عينٌ أنت ناظرُها

وكل شَطٍّ بأشخاص الوَرى شُفُر

It is as though the sea were an eye, and you its pupil,

and every shore, lined with humankind, a fringe of lashes.

تأتي البلادَ فتَنْدَى منك أوجهُها

حتى يقول ثَراها هل هَمَي المطر

You come to the lands, and their faces grow dewy from you,

until their soil asks, “Has the rain poured down?”

ما القَفْر إلا مكانٌ لا تَحُلُّ به

وحيثُما سرْتَ سار البدوُ والحَضَر

The wilderness is nothing but a place where you do not alight;

wherever you journey, nomadic and settled people journey too.

الأرضُ داركُ فاسْلُك حيثُ شئتَ بها

هو المُقام وإن قالوا هو السّفَر

The earth is your home, so go wherever you wish upon it:

that is abiding—even if they call it travel.