لَعَمرُكَ ما يَدري الفَتى كَيفَ يَتَّقي

نَوائِبَ هَذا الدَهرِ أَم كَيفَ يحذرُ

By your life! The youth knows not how he may guard himself

Against the strokes of time, nor what he should beware;

يَرى الشَيءَ مِمّا يَتَّقي فَيَخافُهُ

وَما لا يَرى مِمّا يَقي اللَهُ أَكبَرُ

He sees a thing that he should fear, and fears it,

Yet that which God should guard him from is greater.

أَراني مَعَ الأَحياءِ حَيّاً وَأَكثَري

عَلى الدَهرِ مَيتٌ قَد تَخَوَّنَهُ الدَهرُ

I see myself alive among the living, yet

To time I’m but a dead man whom time has betrayed;

فَما لَم يَمُت مِنّي لِما ماتَ مَيِّتٌ

وَبَعضٌ لِبَعضٍ قَبلَ قَبرِ البِلى قَبرُ

So what of me is dead when part of me still lives?

And part to part is as the grave to what decays.

فَيا رَبِّ قَد أَحسَنتَ بَدءاً وَعودَةً

إِلَيَّ فَلَم يَنهَض بِإِحسانِكَ الشُكرُ

O Lord, well did you begin with me, and call me back,

Yet thanks rise not for your great beneficence;

فَمَن كانَ ذا عُذرٍ لَدَيكَ وَحُجَّةٍ

فَعُذرِيَ إِقراري بِأَن لَيسَ لي عُذرُ

If one has cause with you, and argument,

My cause is but confession that I have no cause.