كَم ساعةٍ آلَمني مَسُّها
وَأَزعَجَتني يَدُها القاسِيَه
Many an hour has pained me with her touch,
How many hours have pained me with their touch
and her cruel hand has distressed me.
And disturbed me with their harsh hand
فَتَشتُ فيها جاهِداً لم أَجِد
هُنَيهَةً واحدةً صافِيَه
I searched within her diligently, yet did not find
I searched within them desperately but could not find
a single serene moment.
A single pure, serene moment
وَكم سَقَتني المرَّ أختٌ لها
فَرُحتُ أَشكوها إلى التالِيَه
And how often a sister of hers made me drink bitterness,
And how much bitterness did their sister hours make me drink
so I went to complain of her to the next.
That I would complain about to the next one
فَأَسلَمَتني هذه عَنوَةً
لِساعةٍ أُخرى وَبى ما بيَه
Then this one handed me over by force
This one handed me over by force
to another hour, with my suffering still upon me.
To another hour, and so it remained
وَيحَكَ يا مِسكينُ هل تَشتَكي
جارَحَةَ الظُفرِ إلى ضارِيَه
Alas for you, poor soul! Do you complain
And woe to you, o wretched one, do you complain
of a clawing beast to a ravening one?
About the claw's wound to the one who inflicted it?
حاذِر منَ الساعات ويلٌ لمَن
يَأمنُ تلكَ الفِئَةَ الطاغِيه
Beware of the hours! Woe to whoever
Beware of the hours, woe to those
feels safe from that tyrannical band.
Who feel safe from their tyrannical gang
وَإن تجِد من بَينِها ساعةً
جَعبَتُها من غَصَصٍ خالِيَه
And if among them you find an hour
And if you find among them an hour
whose quiver is empty of choking sorrows,
Whose bosom is free of anguish
فالهُ بها لَهوَ الحكيم الذي
لم يُنسِه حاضِرُه ماضِيَه
then take your pleasure in her like the sage
Then enjoy it, like the wise man who
whose present has not made him forget his past.
Does not let the present make him forget the past
وَامرَح كما يَمرَحُ ذو نَشوةٍ
في قُلَّةٍ من تحتِها الهاوِيَه
And revel as one intoxicated revels
And frolic as one intoxicated frolics
on a summit with the abyss beneath it.
When the abyss lies beneath him
فهيَ وَإن بَشَّت وَإن داعَبَت
مُحتالةٌ ختّالةٌ عادِيَه
For she, though she smiles and though she caresses,
For it, though it shines and caresses
is scheming, treacherous, aggressive.
Is a treacherous, accustomed trickster
عِناقُها خَنقٌ وَتَقبيلُها
كما تعضُّ الحيَّةُ الباغِيَه
Her embrace is strangulation, and her kiss
Its embrace is strangling, its kiss
is like the bite of a vicious serpent.
Is like the bite of a raging serpent
هذا هو العيشُ فَقُل لِلذي
تَجرَحُهُ الساعةُ والثانِيَه
This is life; so tell the one
Such is life, so say to the one
whom one hour wounds, and then the next:
Wounded by the hour and the next
يا شاكيَ الساعاتِ أَسمِع عَسى
تُنجيكَ منها الساعةُ القاضِيَه
O complainer of the hours, make yourself heard! Perhaps
O you who complain of the hours, perhaps
the hour of death will save you from them.
The deciding hour will save you from them
Sol 6.1