يا رب طرف يفوق الطرف من سبق

فغاية العين نوماً أن ترى أثره

O Lord, a sight that surpasses all sights of the past

For the apex of the eye is to see its traces in sleep

وردٌ مع العرب منسوبٌ فلا قطعت

أيدي الحوادث من أعراقه أثره

A rose imparted to the Arabs, not severed

By the hands of events from its stems, its traces

إذا رأيت دخان النقع مرتفعاً

لمحت للسبق من أعطافه شرره

When you see the smoke of galloping rising

You glimpse for outpacing from its shoulders its sparks

إن أمطرت ظهره رامي السهام مضى

والسبق حذوا فلولا سبقه عقره

If its back where arrows are shot is rained upon, it goes on

And the outpacing closely follows it, else its charging would have gored it

عجبت حين يسمى سابحاً وله

وثبٌ لو البحر أرسى دونه ظفره

I wondered when it is named swimming yet it

Has a leap - had the sea steadied beneath it, it would have grasped it

لما ترفع عن ند يسابقه

أضحى يسابق في ميدانه نظره

When it lifts from the hand racing it

It starts racing in its field with its sight

فتحاء في هفيات الحزن صاعدة

أولاً فصاعقةٌ في السهل منحدره

Yearning in the puffs of sadness ascending

First lightning in the plain descending

أهز في البيد مثل الغصن هادية

فألقط الوحش عن وجه الثرى أثره

I shook in the desert like a bending branch

So the beast snatched from the face of the soil its traces