يا إلهَ الوُجُودِ هذي جِراحٌ

في فُؤادي تَشْكو إليكَ الدَّواهي

O God of existence, these are wounds

O God of Being, here lie wounds unveiled,

In my heart complaining to You of their pain

Within a heart complaining of its doom;

هذهِ زفرةٌ يُصَعِّدها الهمُّ

إلى مَسْمَعِ الفَضَاء السَّاهي

This is a sigh elevated by worry

This is a sigh that heavy grief exhaled

To the hearing of the vacant sky

Towards the hearing of the absent gloom.

هذهِ مُهْجَةُ الشَّقاءِ تُناجيكَ

فهلْ أَنْتَ سامعٌ يا إلهي

This is the anguish of misery whispering to You

This is the soul of misery, calling Thee—

So are You listening, my God?

Art Thou then listening, O God, to me?

أَنْتَ أَنْزَلْتَني إلى ظُلْمَةِ الأَرضِ

وقَدْ كنتُ في صباحِ زَاهِ

You brought me down into the darkness of earth

You brought me down into this earthen night,

While I was in the morning of my prime

Though I once dwelled within a radiant morn;

كالشُّعاعِ الجميلِ أَسْبَحُ في الأُفْقِ

وأُصْغي إلى خَريرِ المياهِ

Like a beautiful ray I swam on the horizon

Like a fair ray swimming the horizon's light,

And listened to the murmur of the waters

Listening to waters where the streams are born;

وأُغنِّي بَيْنَ اليَنابيعِ للفجرِ

وأَشدو كالبلبلِ التَّيَّاهِ

And sang among the springs to the dawn

Singing amidst the springs to greet the day,

And warbled like a swooning nightingale

Chanting like nightingales in proud display.

أَنْتَ أوصَلْتَني إلى سُبُلِ الدُّنيا

وهذي كثيرَةُ الاشْتِباهِ

You led me to the paths of worldly life

You led me to the world's bewildering trails,

And they are so full of confusion

Paths fraught with ambiguity and doubt;

ثمَّ خَلَّفْتَني وحيداً فريداً

بَيْنَ داعٍ من الرِّياحِ ونَاهِ

Then You left me alone and unique

Then left me lonely where the tempest wails,

Between a caller from the winds and a wailer

Torn between winds that buffeted about.

أَنْتَ أوقفتني على لُجَّةِ الحُزْنِ

وجَرَّعتني مَرارَةَ آهِ

You stood me at the abyss of sorrow

You placed me on the precipice of grief,

And made me drink the bitterness of sighs

And made me drain the bitter cup of pain;

أَنْتَ أنشأْتني غريباً بنفسي

بَيْنَ قومي في نَشْوَتي وانتباهي

You made me a stranger to myself

You formed me strange—a soul without relief,

Among my people during my joy and heedfulness

Alien amidst my kin, awake or slain.

أَنْتَ كرَّهْتَني الحَيَاةَ وما فيها

وحبَّبْتَني جُمودَ السَّاهي

You made me hate life and what is in it

You made me loathe this life and all it holds,

And made me love the stillness of the vacant

Loving the silence of the senseless stone;

أَنْتَ جَبَّلْتَ بَيْنَ جنْبيَّ قلباً

سَرْمَديّ الشُّعورِ والانتباهِ

You created in my ribs a heart

You molded in my ribs a heart that folds

Eternal in feeling and awareness

Eternal feeling, wakeful and alone.

أَنْتَ عذَّبتني بَدِقَّة حِسِّي

وتعقَّبْتَني بكُلِّ الدَّواهي

You tortured me with the acuteness of my senses

You tortured me with senses far too keen,

And pursued me with every pain

Pursued me with disasters, fierce and vast;

بالأَسى بالسَّقام بالهمِّ بالوحشة

باليأسِ بالشَّقا المُتناهي

With sorrow, with illness, with worry, with loneliness

With sickness, sorrow, dread of the unseen,

With despair, with endless misery

With despair and misery that shall ever last.

بالمنايا تَغْتال أَشْهى أَمانيَّ

وتُذوي محاجري وشِفاهي

With death ambushing my dearest wishes

With deaths that slay the hopes I hold most dear,

And melting my eyelids and lips

Withering my eye-sockets and my lips;

فإذا مَنْ أُحِبُّ حُفْنَةُ تُرْبٍ

تافهٍ مِنْ تَرائبٍ وجِبَاهِ

So when those I love are a handful of dust

Until the ones I loved, now standing near,

Worthless residue and skulls

Are distinctless dust that from the finger slips.

وإذا فتنةُ الحَيَاة وسِحْرُ الكونِ

ضَرْبٌ من الغَمامِ الزَّاهي

And the temptation of life and the magic of existence

And lo, the charm of life, the cosmic spell,

Are a kind of lofty, vain clouds

Is but a fleeting cloud of bright illusion;

يتلاشى فَوْقَ الخضَمِّ ويبقى ال

يَمُّ كالعهدِ مُزْبدُ الأَمواهِ

That fade above the multitudes, leaving behind

Vanishing on the deep, leaving to dwell

Woe, like the foam of deluges

The sea as ever, frothing in confusion.

يا إله الوُجُود مَا لَكَ لا ترثي

لحُزْنِ المُعَذَّبِ الأَوَّاهِ

O God of existence, why don't You mourn

O God of Being, do You feel no grace

The sorrow of the suffering, moaning one?

For one who suffers, sighing in despair?

قَدْ تأَوَّهْتُ في سكونِ اللَّيالي

ثمَّ أَطبقتُ في الصَّباحِ شِفاهي

I moaned in the stillness of the nights

I groaned in silence through the night's dark space,

Then suppressed my lips in the morning

Then sealed my lips when morning filled the air.

وَتَغَزَّلْتُ بالحَيَاةِ وبالح

بِّ وغنَّيتُ كالسَّعيدِ اللاَّهي

And flirted with life and love

I flirted with this life and love's sweet art,

And sang like a heedless happy one

Singing like one whom happiness beguiles;

وزَرَعْتُ الأَحلامَ في قلبيَ الدَّا

مي وحوَّطْتُها بكلِّ انتباهي

And planted dreams in my lasting heart

I planted dreams within my bleeding heart,

And surrounded them with all my attention

Guarding them closely with my watchful wiles.

ثمَّ لمَّا حَصَدْتُ لمْ أَجْنِ إلاَّ

الشَّوكَ مَا تُرى فعلتُ إلهي

But when I harvested, I reaped nothing

But when I reaped, I gathered naught but thorn—

Except thorns - what have You done, my God?

What have I done, my God, to be so torn?

يا رِياحَ الوُجُود سيري بعنفٍ

وتغنِّي بصَوْتِكِ الأَوَّاهِ

O winds of existence, blow violently

O winds of Being, blow with violent force!

And sing with Your moaning voice

Sing with your voice that wails across the sky!

وانفحيني مِنْ روحِكِ الفَخْمِ مَا يُبْ

لغُ صَوْتي آذَانَ هذا الإِلهِ

And blow from Your splendid breath into me

Breathe your grand spirit into my weak course,

Enough to make my voice reach the ears of this God

That my small voice may reach this God on high.

فهْو يُصغي إلى القويِّ ولا يُص

غي لصَوتٍ بَيْنَ العَواصِفِ واهِ

For He listens to the strong and does not listen

For He hears only those whom strength empowers,

To a voice amidst storms and wailing

Not frail complaints amidst the stormy hours.

وانثُري الوَرْدَ للثُّلوجِ بدَاداً

واصعقي كلّ بُلبلٍ تَيَّاهِ

And scatter roses over the snow meaninglessly

Scatter the roses on the snows to die,

And shock every swooning nightingale

Strike down the nightingale in its proud flight;

فالوُجُودُ الشقيُّ غيرُ جديرٍ

بالأَغاني وبالجمالِ الزَّاهي

For miserable existence is not worthy

This wretched world deserves no lullaby,

Of songs or of beautiful bloom

No songs of beauty, no resplendent light.

واسحقي الكَائِناتِ كوْناً بكَوْنٍ

قبل أنْ تنتهي أذلّ تَنَاهِ

And crush the worlds, one universe at a time

Crush all existence, sphere upon sphere crashing,

Before the most miserable end comes

Before it ends in abject, low decay;

فالإِلهُ العَظيمُ لم يخلُقِ الدُّنيا

سِوَى للفناءِ تَحْتَ الدَّواهي

For the great God created the world

For God created worlds for brutal smashing,

Only for demise under pain

To perish underneath the doom's array.

يا ضميرَ الوُجُود يا عالمَ الأَروا

حِ يا أَيُّها الفضاءُ السَّاهي

O conscience of existence, O knower of spirits

O conscience of the world, O realm of souls!

O You vacant sky

O absent-minded void, so vast and deep!

يا خضَمَّ الحَيَاةِ يَزْخَرُ في الآ

فاق في التُّرْبِ في قرارِ المياهِ

O tumult of life, foaming

O ocean of this life that surges and rolls

In the horizons, in the soil, in the stillness of waters

In soil, in horizons, where waters sleep!

خبِّروني هلْ للورى من إلهٍ

راحمٍ مِثْلُ زَعْمِهِمْ أَوَّاهِ

Tell me, is there for the people a kind God

Tell me, is there a God for humankind,

As they claim, full of mercy?

Merciful as they claim? Alas, I find...

يَخْلُقُ النَّاسَ باسماً ويواسي

هم ويرنو لهم بعطفٍ إِلهي

Who creates mankind in His name

Who creates people smiling, and who sends

And consoles them and looks upon them with divine affection

His solace, gazing down with divine care?

ويرى في وجودهِمْ رُوحَهُ السَّ

امي وآياتِ فنِّهِ المتناهي

And sees in their existence His peaceful soul

Who sees His spirit in the life He tends,

And the infinite signs of His art

And art infinite in the forms they bear?

إنَّني لم أجدْهُ في هاتهِ الدُّن

يا فهلْ خَلْفَ أُفْقِها من إِلهِ

I did not find Him in this world

I found Him not within this world of pain;

So is there a God beyond its horizons?

Does He beyond the far horizon reign?

مَا الَّذي قَدْ أَتيتَ يا قلبيَ البا

كي وماذا قَدْ قُلْتِهِ يا شِفاهي

What have you come to, my crying heart

What have you done, O weeping heart of mine?

And what have you said, my lips?

What have you uttered, O my trembling lips?

يا إلهي قَدْ أَنْطَقَ الهمُّ قلبي

بالذي كانَ فاغتفر يا إِلهي

O my God, worry made my heart

O God, 'twas grief that forced this bold design,

Speak what was in it, so forgive, my God

Speaking of what has passed—let mercy eclipse.

قَدَمُ اليأْسِ والكآبَةِ داستْ

قلبيَ المتْعَبَ الغريبَ الواهي

The feet of despair and gloominess

The foot of bleak despair and misery

Trampled my tired, lonely, weak heart

Trampled my tired heart, strange and frail inside;

فتشظَّى وتلكَ بعضُ شَظَايَا

هُ فَسامِحْ قُنُوطَهُ المتناهي

So it shattered and these are some of its pieces

It shattered—these are fragments that You see,

So forgive its endless despair

So pardon its despair, so terrified.

فَهْوَ يا ربِّ مَعْبَدُ الحقِّ

والإِيمانِ والنُّورِ والنَّقاءِ الإِلهي

For it is, O Lord, the temple of truth

For 'tis, O Lord, a temple of the Truth,

And faith, light and divine purity

Of faith, of light, of purity divine;

وَهْوَ نايُ الجَمالِ والحبِّ والأَح

لامِ لكنْ قَدْ حَطَّمَتْهُ الدَّواهي

It is the flute of beauty, love and dreams

It is the flute of beauty, love, and youth,

But pain has shattered it

But crushed by dooms that made its song decline.