وَمُشتَمَّةٍ لِلأَرضِ حَتَّى كَأَنَّها

تَقَصَّى مُحولاً في البطاح المواحل

Cursed and condemned be the land as though

It had traversed mazy mountains and trackless wilds.

فَجنَّت كَما جَنَّ الظَّلامُ وَأَفرَغَت

عَلينا كَإِفراغِ الدِّلاءِ الحَوافل

It rained on us as darkness rains, pouring down

Like cloud-bursts' headlong, gushing waters.

أَطَلَّت غَديراً في الهَواء كَأَنَّهُ

هو البحرُ يجري بالسفينِ الحوامل

It hung above in the air like a sea about to burst,

As if it were the deep with ships and swelling sails.

فَلَو أَنَّها صَبَّت جَميعاً لَغَرَّقَت

وَلَكنما أَرواحُها كَالمناخل

Had it but poured its waters altogether, it would have drowned us.

But its drops were like the spent arrows of fate.

كَأَنَّ غَديرَ الماءِ بَينَ حَبابِهِ

وَبَينَ شُخُوصٍ قُمنَ مثلَ الأَنامل

As though pearls of water amid its spray

And towers shattered stood like human forms.

مَساميرُ دُرٍّ تَعتَلي برءوسنا

مِراراً وَطوراً تَعتلي بِالأَسافل

Nails of pearl rain down on our heads

Now and again, now striking the heights, now the depths.