حيًا ستبقى وإن لفتك أكفان

خالدًا رغم ما قلوا وما شانوا

Alive you will remain though shrouds enfold you,

Alive you shall remain, though shrouds enfold you,

Immortal though they said and machinated.

Immortal, despite what they said and how they scorned.

دنياك يا شاعر الآلام عامرة

بذات نفسك لا كنا، ولا كانوا

Your world, O poet of sorrows, flourishes

Your world, O poet of sorrows, is flourishing,

With your own soul, not what they were or became.

Filled by your own soul—not by us, nor by them.

لم تُلق شعرك في إرضاء عاطفة

ولا ضعفت وكم في ضعفهم خانوا

You did not cast your poetry to please a whim

You never cast your verse to appease a passing whim,

Nor weaken, though in their weakness they betrayed.

Nor did you falter, while many in their weakness betrayed.

ولا تملقت تستجدي أخا كرم

وكم تملق بالأشعار إخوان!

You did not flatter to beg a generous brother,

You never fawned to beg from a generous hand,

Though many flattered with poems, oh brothers!

Though how many 'brethren' have flattered with their lines!

لهفي على الشعر أضحى عند بعضهم

بضاعة ما لها عز ولا شان

Yearning for poetry has become for some of them

My grief is for poetry, which has become in the hands of some

Goods without pride or stature.

A cheap commodity, bereft of glory or worth.

هذا يتاجر بالأشعار محترفا

وذاك غايته بالشعر نيشان

This one trades in poems professionally,

This one trades in verses as a common profession,

And that one's goal with poetry is a spearhead.

And that one seeks, through poetry, a medal to wear.

هذي الدعارة في الآداب رائجة

بناتها اليوم أشعار وألحان

This is rampant prostitution in literature,

This prostitution in literature runs rampant;

Its daughters today are poems and melodies.

Its offspring today are mere lyrics and tunes.

ترى الميوعة والإسفاف يجمعها

بخسة الروح تقطيع وأوزان

You see the diluted and wasteful collected

You see softness and vulgarity bound together

By the meanness of spirit, scanning and meters.

By a baseness of spirit, mere scansion and meter.

فأصبح الشعر "خنثى" مثل قائله

لا الشعر شعر، ولا الفنان فنان

So poetry became "effeminate" like its sayer,

So poetry became effeminate, much like its speaker;

No longer poetry, nor the artist an artist.

The verse is not verse, and the artist no artist.

وكل شعب غدا بالشعر مرتزقًا

فحظه من حياة العز خسران

And every people turned mercenary with poetry,

And any people who turn poetry into mercenary work,

So their share of a life of pride is loss.

Their share in a life of honor is absolute loss.

يا شاعر الخلد دعهم في غوايتهم

وخالد الشعر ذرهم حيثما كانوا

O immortal poet leave them to their misguidance,

O poet of eternity, leave them in their delusion,

And leave the immortal poetry wherever they were.

And O immortal of verse, leave them wherever they are.

عوضت بالخلد خيرًا من صداقتهم

كفاك بالخلد أصحاب واخلدن

You replaced with immortality better than their friendship,

You were compensated with eternity, better than their friendship;

Immortality suffices you for companions and brethren.

Suffice for you eternity as companions and friends.