باسم الذي أُنزِلت من عِندِه السُّوَرُ

والحَمدُ للَّهِ أمَّا بَعدُ يا عُمَرُ

In the name of Him from whom the suras were sent down,

praise be to God—and now then, O Umar:

إن كنتَ تَعلَمُ ما تأتي وما تَذَر

فَكُن على حَذر قد يَنفَعُ الحَذَرُ

If you know what you do and what you leave undone,

then be on your guard, for caution may avail.

واصبِر على القَدَرِ المَجلُوبِ وارضَ به

وإن أتاك بِمَا لا تَشتَهِي القَدَرُ

Endure the fate brought upon you, and accept it,

even when fate brings what you do not desire.

فَما صَفا لامرِئٍ عَيشٌ يُسَرُّ به

إلا سيتبَعُ يوما صَفوَه كَدَرُ

No mortal’s life has ever remained serene and gladdening

without its serenity one day being followed by distress.

واستَخبِرِ الناسَ عمّا أنت جَاهِلُه

إذا عَمِيتَ فقد يَجلو العَمَى البَصَرُ

Ask people about whatever you do not know;

when you are blind to a thing, sight may dispel the blindness.

قَد يَرعَوِي المرءُ يوما بعد هَفوَته

وتحكُم الجاهلَ الأيامُ والعِبَرُ

A man may come to his senses one day after his lapse,

and days, with all their lessons, may make the ignorant wise.

إن التُّقَى خَيرُ زادٍ أنت حامِلُهُ

والبرُّ أفضلُ شيءٍ نَالَه بَشَرُ

Godfearingness is the finest provision you can carry,

and righteousness the finest thing a mortal may attain.

مَن يَطلُبِ الجَورَ لا يَظفَر بحاجَتهِ

وطالِبُ الحقِّ قد يُهدَى له الظَّفَرُ

Whoever seeks injustice will not gain his desire,

while the seeker of right may be guided to victory.

وفي الهُدَى عِبَرٌ تَشفَى القلوبُ بها

كالغَيثِ يَنضِرُ عن وَسمِيِّه الشَّجَرُ

In right guidance are lessons that heal the heart,

as rain makes trees flourish wherever its trace has fallen.

وليسَ ذُو العِلم بالتَّقوى كَجاهِلِها

ولا البَصيرُ كأعمَى ما له بَصَرُ

The person of knowledge and godfearingness is not like the ignorant,

nor is one who sees like one blind and sightless.

والرُّشدُ نافلةٌ تُهدَى لصاحِبِها

والغَيُّ يُكرَه منه الوِردُ والصَّدَرُ

Right guidance is a boon bestowed upon its recipient;

error makes both the watering place and the return from it hateful.

قد يُوبِقُ المرءَ أمرٌ وهو يَحقِره

والشيءُ يا نَفسُ يَنمَى وهو يُحتَقَرُ

A thing a man belittles may bring him to ruin;

and gray hair, O soul, grows while being stored away.

ورُبَّما جاءني ما لا أؤملُه

وربَّما فاتَ مأمُول ومُنتَظَرُ

Often what I never hoped for has come to me,

and often a hoped-for, awaited thing has passed me by.

لا يُشبِعُ النفسَ شيءٌ حين تُحرِزُهُ

ولا يزالُ لها في غَيرِه وَطَرُ

Nothing satisfies the soul once it has secured it;

it always has some other desire elsewhere.

ولا تزالُ وإن كَانت لها سَعَةٌ

لَهَا إلى الشيءِ لم تَظفَر به نَظَرُ

Even amid abundance, it continues

to gaze toward whatever it has failed to obtain.

وكلُّ شيءٍ له حالٌ يغيِّرُهُ

كما تُغَيِّرُ لونَ اللمّةِ الغِيَرُ

Everything has a condition that will alter it,

as fortune’s turns alter the color of one’s locks.

والذِّكرُ فيه حَيَاةٌ لِلقُلُوبِ كما

يُحيِي البِلادَ إذا ما ماتَت المَطَرُ

Remembrance gives life to hearts, just as

rain revives the land after it has died.

والعِلمُ يَجلُو العَمَى عن قلبِ صاحبِه

كما يُجلي سوادَ الظُّلمةِ القَمَرُ

Knowledge clears blindness from its possessor’s heart,

as the moon clears the blackness of the dark.

لا ينفعُ الذِّكرُ قَلباً قَاسِياً أبدَاً

وهَل يَلِينُ لِقَولِ الوَاعِظِ الحَجَرُ

Admonition never profits a heart grown hard;

can stone be softened by a preacher’s words?

والمَوتُ جِسرٌ لِمَن يَمشِي على قَدَم

إلى الأمور التي تُخشَى وتُنتَظَرُ

Death is a bridge for everyone who walks on two feet

to the things that are feared and awaited.

فهم يَمُرُّونَ أفواجاً وتَجمَعُهم

دَارٌ إليها يَصيرُ البَدوُ والحَضَرُ

They pass in companies, gathered together by

an abode to which nomad and townsman alike must go.

مَن كَان في مَعقِل للحِزرِ أسلَمَه

أو كانَ في خَمرٍ لم يُنجِه خَمَرُ

Whoever seeks safety in a stronghold is surrendered by it,

and whoever hides in a thicket is saved by no thicket.

حتَّى مَتَى أنَا في الدُّنيا أخو كلَفٍ

في الخدِّ مني إلى لَذَّاتِها صَعَرُ

How long shall I remain in this world, a companion to infatuation,

as though immortal, my cheek inclined toward its pleasures?

وَلا أرى أثَراً للذِّكرِ في جَسَدي

والماءُ في الحَجَرِ القاسي لَهُ أثَرُ

I see no mark of remembrance upon my body,

although water leaves its mark even upon hard stone.

لَو كَانَ يُسهِرُ عيني ذِكرُ آخرَتِي

كَمَا يؤرِّقُني لِلعَاجِلِ السَّهَرُ

If thought of my afterlife kept my eyes awake

as concern for this fleeting world keeps me awake,

إذاً لَدَاويتُ قَلباً قد أضَرَّ بِهِ

طُولُ السِّقَام ووهنُ العَظم يَنجَبرُ

I would tend a heart grievously harmed

by prolonged sickness, frailty of bone, and age.

ما يَلبَثُ الشيءُ أن يَبلَى إذا اختَلَفَت

يَوماً عَلَى نَقضِه الرَّوحَاتُ والبُكَرُ

A thing soon wears away when, in alternation,

evenings and mornings keep stripping it down.

والمَرءُ يَصعَدُ رَيعَانُ الشَبَابِ به

وكُلُّ مُصعدَةٍ يَوماً ستَنحَدِرُ

A man ascends while youth is in its first vigor,

but everyone who ascends must one day descend.

وكلُّ بيتٍ خَرَاب بَعدَ جِدَّتِه

ومن وراء الشبابِ المَوتُ والكِبَرُ

Every house falls to ruin after being made new,

and behind youth wait death and old age.

بَينَا يُرَى الغُصنُ لَدناً في أرومَتِه

رَيَّانَ أضحَى حُطاماً جَوفُه نَخِرُ

While the branch appears supple upon its root,

lush and watered, it becomes dry wreckage, hollow and rotten.

كَم مِن جَمِيعٍ أشتَّ الدَّهرُ شَملَهُمُ

وكلُّ شيءٍ جَمِيع سَوفَ يَنتَثِرُ

How many united companies Time has torn apart;

every gathered company will be scattered.

ورُبَّ أصيدَ سَامِي الطَّرفِ مُعتَصِب

بالتَّاجِ نِيرَانُه لِلحَربِ تَستَعِرُ

How many a proud man, lofty of gaze, his brow bound

with a crown, while the fires of war blaze,

يَظَلُّ يَفتَرِشُ الدِّيبَاجَ مُحتَجِبا

عليه تُبنَى قِبَابُ المُلكِ والحُجَرُ

spends his days reclining on brocade, screened from sight,

while royal domes and stone chambers rise above him—

قد غادرتهُ المَنَايا وهو مُستَلَبُ

مجَدَّلُ تَربُ الخدين مُنعَفِرُ

only for death to leave him stripped and plundered,

naked, his cheeks dust-stained and his face in the earth.

أبَعدَ آدمَ تَرجُونَ البَقَاءَ وَهَل

تَبقَى فروعٌ لأَصلٍ حين يَنعَقِرُ

After Adam, do you hope for lasting life? Can

branches survive when their root is torn out?

لهم بيوتٌ بِمُستَنّ السُّيولِ وهل

يَبقَى على الماءِ بَيتٌ أُسُّه مَدَرُ

They have houses founded upon the edges of swords—but can

a house built on water, with mud for its foundation, remain?

إلى الفَنَاءِ وإن طالت سَلامتُهم

مَصيرُ كلِّ بَنِي أُنثَى وإن كَثُروا

Toward extinction—even if their safety lasts long—

goes every child of woman, however numerous they are.

إنَّ الأُمورَ إذا استقبلتَها اشتَبَهَت

وفي تَدَبُّرِها التِّبيانُ والعِبَرُ

When matters first confront you, they seem obscure,

but reflection reveals their meaning and their lesson.

والمَرءُ ما عاشَ في الدنيا له أملُ

إذا انقَضى سَفَر منا أتَى سَفَرُ

As long as a person lives in this world, he has some hope;

whenever one journey ends for us, another begins.

لَهَا حَلاوةُ عَيشٍ غَيرُ دَائِمَةٍ

وفي العَوَاقِبِ مِنهَا المُرُّ والصَّبِرُ

Its life has sweetness, but that sweetness does not last,

and in its outcomes lie bitterness and bitter aloe.

إذا انقضت زُمَرٌ آجالُها نَزَلت

على مَنَازِلِها مِن بَعدِها زُمَرُ

When successive companies reach the end of their appointed terms,

new companies alight in their dwelling places after them.

وليسَ يَزجُرُكم ما تُوعَظُونَ بِهِ

والبَهمُ يَزجُرها الرَّاعِي فَتَنزَجِرُ

Will what you are admonished with not restrain you,

when even dumb beasts heed the herdsman’s check?

أصبَحتُمُ جَزَرا للموتِ يَقبِضُكم

كما البَهَائمُ في الدنيا لها جَزَرُ

You have become prey for death, which seizes you,

as beasts in this world are marked for slaughter.

لا تَبطِروا واهجُروا الدنيا فإنَّ لها

غِبَّا وَخِيما وكفرُ النعمةِ البَطَرُ

Do not grow wanton; forsake the world, for it has

a dire aftermath, and wantonness is ingratitude for blessing.

ثم اقتَدُوا بالأُلى كانوا لكم غُرَرا

ولَيسَ من أُمَّةٍ إلا لها غُرَرُ

Then follow those who came before, who were exemplars for you;

there is no nation that has not had its exemplars.

حتَّى تكونوا على مِنهَاجِ أوَّلِكُم

وتَصبِروا عن هَوَى الدنيا كَما صَبَروا

Keep to the path of your earliest predecessors,

and resist worldly desire as they resisted it.

ما لي أرى الناسَ والدنيا مُوَلِّيةٌ

وكلُّ حَبلٍ عليها سوف يَنبَتِرُ

Why do I see people while the world is turning away,

and every rope that binds them to it will be severed?

لا يَشعُرونَ بِمَا في دِينهم نَقَصُوا

جَهلاً وإن نَقَصت دُنياهُمُ شَعَروا

They do not perceive what they diminish in their religion

through ignorance—yet if their worldly fortune diminishes, they perceive it.

مَن عاشَ أدرك في الأعداءِ بُغيَتَهُ

ومَن يَمُت فَلَهُ الأيَّامُ تَنتَصِرُ

Whoever lives will, in the course of days, attain what he seeks;

and whoever dies—the days claim their victory.