إِلى اللَهِ اِشكو إِنَّهُ مَوضع الشَكوى

وَفي يَدِهِ كَشف المَضرة وَالبَلوى

To God I make my complaint, for He is the refuge of every complaint;

in His hand lies deliverance from harm and affliction.

خَرَجنا من الدُنيا وَنَحنُ مِن اِهلِها

فَلَسنا مِن الاِحياءِ فيها وَلا المَوتى

We have departed from the world while still among its people,

so we are neither among its living nor its dead.

اِذا دَخَل السجانُ يَوماً لِحاجَة

عَجبنا وَقُلنا جاءَ هذا من الدُنيا

Whenever the jailer enters one day on some errand,

we marvel and say, “This man has come from the world.”

وَنَفرح بِالرُؤيا فَجل حَديثُنا

اِذا نَحنُ اِصبَحنا الحَديث عَن الرُؤيا

We delight in dreams, for most of our conversation—

when morning finds us—is talk about dreams.

فَإِن حَسَنت لَم تَأَتِ عَجل وَأَبطَأَت

وَإِن قَبَحتَ لَم تَحتَبِس وَأَتَت عَجلى

If a dream is fair, it is slow to come and long delayed;

but if it is foul, it does not tarry and comes in haste.

طَوى دونَنا الأَخبارُ سِجن مُمنَع

لَهُ حارِس تَهدا العُيونُ لا يَهدا

A forbidding prison has folded the news away from us;

it has a guard: eyes may rest, but he never rests.

قَبرُنا وَلم نَدفن فَنَحن بِمَعزَل

من الناسِ وَلا نَخشى فَنَغشى وَلا نَغشى

It is our grave, though we have not been buried; thus we are cut off

from the people, with no one coming to us and no one we may visit.

أَلا أحد يَأوى لِأَهل محلة

مُقيمينَ في الدُنيا وَقَد فارَقوا الدُنيا

Is there no one who will pity the people of this dwelling—

abiding in the world, though they have departed from the world?

كَأَنَّهُم لَم يَعرِفوا غَير دارِهِم

وَلَم يَعرِفوا غَير التَضايَق وَالبَلوى

As though they had never known any home but their own,

and never known anything but confinement and affliction.