يا لاابْتِسامَةِ قَلْبٍ

مَطْلولَةٍ بدموعِهْ

O smile of a heart

Oh, for the smile of a heart

Flooded with its tears

Drenched in its own tears,

غاضَتْ فلمْ تُبْقِ إلاَّ

الدُّمُوعَ بَيْنَ صُدُوعِهْ

It was upset, and nothing remained

That has receded, leaving nothing but

Except tears between its ribs

Tears flowing amidst its cracks.

فَظَلَّ يَهْتُفُ من شَجْ

وِهِ وفَرْطِ ولُوعِهْ

So it remained shouting from the pain

And so it kept crying out from its grief,

Of its fervent distress

And the excess of its burning passion:

ويِح الحَيَاة أَما تَنْ

قَضي لَدَيْها الرَّزايا

Alas, is life not ending

"Woe to this life! Will calamities

For it the adversities

Never cease to end within it?

أَما يُكَفْكِفُ هذا الزَّ

مانُ صَوْبَ البَلايا

Does this time not restrain

Will this time never wipe away

Towards the afflictions

The pouring rain of tribulations?

يا دهرُ رفقاً فإنَّ القُ

لوبَ أَمْسَتْ شَظَايا

O fate, have mercy, for hearts

Oh Fate, be gentle, for truly the hearts

Have become fragments

Have become but scattered shards."

يا قلبُ نَهْنِهْ دموعَ

الأَسى ولوْعةَ رُوعِكْ

O heart, calm the tears

Oh heart, restrain the tears of

Of sorrow and your fervor

Sorrow and the anguish of your fright.

إنَّ الدُّهُورَ البَواكي

غَنِيَّةٌ عَنْ دُمُوعِكْ

Verily, the times filled with crying

For the weeping ages

Are needless of your tears

Have no need of your tears.

حسْبُ الحَيَاةِ أَساها

فاطْوِ الأَسى في صُدُوعِكْ

Life’s adversity is enough

Life has enough of its own sorrow,

So restrain sorrow in your chest

So fold away the grief within your cracks.

واحْلُمْ بفجرِ اللَّيالي فَفَجْ

رُهَا في هُجُوعِكْ

And dream of the dawn of nights, so its

And dream of the nights' dawn, for its dawn

Dawn is in your passions

Lies within your slumber.

وإن غفوت فإن الحي

اة ليست تروعك

And if you sleep, then life

And if you drift to sleep, then life

Is not to frighten you

Shall no longer terrify you.

وسَوْفَ يمضي شتاءُ الأَسى

ويَأْتي رَبيعُكْ

And the winter of sorrow will pass

And the winter of sorrow shall pass,

And your spring will come

And your spring shall come.

بَيْنَ القُبورِ فتاةٌ

جارَ الزَّمانُ عليها

Between the graves a girl

Among the graves stands a girl,

Whose time was unjust to her

Upon whom time has dealt a cruel blow.

فافْتَكَّ منها بعُنْفٍ

كَفُّ الرَّدى أَبَويْها

So it stripped her violently

For violently snatched away from her—

Like the hands of demise took her parents

By the hand of death—were her parents.

تقولُ واللَّيل سَاجٍ

والقبرُ مُصغٍ إليها

She says while the night falls

She speaks, while the night is still,

And the grave listens to her

And the grave listens intently to her:

يا ليتني متُّ مِنْ قَبْ

لِ أَنْ تَسوءَ حَيَاتي

Oh, if only I had died

"Oh, would that I had died before

Before my life was ruined

My life turned so wretched,

ويَنْضُبَ الدَّمع من لو

عَتي ومِنْ حَسَراتي

And tears dried from my agony

And before the tears dried up from my

And my regrets

Anguish and from my heartbreaks.

مَنْ لي بِحُفْرَةِ قَبْرٍ

تضمُّني وشَكَاتِي

Who will give me a grave

Who will grant me a grave's pit

That takes me and my complaints

To embrace me and my complaints?"

في الحيِّ صبٌّ يُعاني

في الصَّدْرِ داءً دَفينا

In life one suffers

In the neighborhood is a lover suffering

A deep, hidden illness in the chest

A buried sickness within his chest.

وفي الفُؤادِ جوًى كا

مناً وَحِسًّا مَكينا

And in the heart a burning

And in his heart, a burning passion

And settled agony

Hidden, and a deep-seated feeling.

حتَّى دهتْه اللَّيالي

وجرَّعتْهُ مَنُونَهْ

Until the nights exhausted him

Until the nights overwhelmed him,

And his fate made him drink

And forced him to drink his death.

فشيَّعَ الميْتَ جمعٌ

مِنْ حيِّهِ يَنْدُبُونَهْ

So a group of his living ones

So a crowd escorted the deceased

Bade farewell to him crying

From his neighborhood, mourning him.

حتَّى إِذا مَا أَرادوا

رصْفَ الصَّفائِحِ دونَهْ

Until when they wanted

Until, when they wished

To place the coffin near him

To lay the stone slabs over him,

ناحَتْ عليهِ فتاةٌ

ويلي لمَنْ تتركونَهْ

A girl cried over him

A girl wailed over him:

Woe to whomever you leave him to

"Woe is me! To whom do you leave him?"

كانَ الصبيُّ يَصيدُ

الفَراشَ بَيْنَ الزُّهُورِ

The young boy hunted

The young boy was hunting

Butterflies between the flowers

Butterflies among the flowers.

فَدَاسَ زهراً نَدِيًّا

أَلقى به في الغَديرْ

So he stepped on a soft flower

He stepped on a dewy blossom,

And tossed it in the stream

Which cast him into the pond.

فَأَخْرَجُوهُ ولكنْ

بعدَ القضاءِ الأَخيرِ

But they took him out after

They pulled him out, but

The final judgement

After the final decree had passed.

فخرَّت الأُمُّ حولَ الصَّبِ

يِّ تصرخُ ويلي

So the mother fell over the boy

The mother collapsed around the boy,

Screaming, woe is me!

Screaming, "Woe is me!"

فقلتُ والقلبُ دَامٍ والنَّ

اسُ يبكونَ حولي

I said while my heart bled

I said, while my heart bled and people

And people cried around me

Wept all around me:

مَا أَسخَفَ العيشَ تَقْ

ضِي عليهِ زلَّةُ نَعْلِ

How foolish is life

"How absurd is life, that it is

Ended by a mere stumble

Ended by the slip of a sandal."

شيخٌ شَآهُ دَهْرُ الأَس

ى وَحيدٌ شَتِيتُ

An old man whom the days of sorrow made lonely

An old man, scarred by the age of sorrow,

Wandering between the ruins

Lonely and scattered.

بَيْنَ الخرائبِ يُمسي

على الطَّوى ويَبِيتُ

Spending the night at the hills and staying

Among the ruins he spends his evening

So his life spilled

In hunger, and there he sleeps.

في ظُلْمَةِ اللَّيلِ فاضَتْ

على الوُجُودِ حياتُهْ

And his eyes gaze at the stars

In the darkness of the night, his life

Filled with his tears

Overflowed upon existence.

وطرفُهُ يَرْمُقُ النَّجْمَ

مِلؤُهُ عَبَراتُهْ

And around him only ruins

While his gaze watched the star,

That stir his silence

Filled with his tears.

وما حواليهِ إلاَّ الخَ

رابُ يُشجي صُماتُهْ

So neither his beloved cried for him

And around him was nothing but the ruins,

Nor his darling wept for him

Whose silence provokes grief.

فما بكاهُ فَتَاهُ

ولا بكتْهُ فتاتُهْ

O flower trodden harshly

No young man wept for him,

And disgraced by passersby

Nor did any young woman weep.

يا زهرةً سامَها العَا

برونَ خَسْفاً وهونَا

If you were a prickly thorn

Oh flower, whom the passersby subjected

No one would step on you

To humiliation and disgrace.

لو كنتِ شوكاً عَضوضاً

مَا داسَكِ العابِرونا

For they do not know the revelation

Had you been a sharp, biting thorn,

That you secretly hold

The passersby would not have trampled you.

لأنَّهم يجهلونَ الوَحْيَ

الَّذي تُضْمِرينا

They mock the whisper of flowers

Because they are ignorant of the revelation

Yet it is beautiful

That you harbor within.

هُمْ يَسْخَرونَ بهَمْسِ

الزُّهُورِ وهْوَ بَديعُ

And listen to the voice of thorns

They mock the whisper

Though it is horrible

Of the flowers, though it is exquisite.

ويُنْصِتونَ لصَوْتِ الأَشواكِ

وهْوَ مُريعُ

So do not care about people

Yet they listen to the voice of thorns,

The truth in them is defeated

Though it is terrifying.

فلا تُبالي بقومِ

الحقُّ فيهمْ صَريعُ

My Lord, how many a girl complains of life and cries

So do not care for a people

And a deprived one whom time has placed

Among whom truth lies slain.

ربَّاه كم مِنْ فتاةٍ

تشكو الحَيَاة وتبكي

In the seat of misery

Oh Lord, how many a girl

And a desperate one whose sole hope died

Complains of life and weeps.

ومُعْدَمٍ بوَّأَتْهُ الدُّهُورُ

مَقْعَدَ ضَنْكِ

In his heart

And a destitute man, whom the ages settled

And a lost one in the desert

In a seat of hardship.

ويائِسٍ ماتَ في

لُبِّهِ المَرامُ الوَحيدُ

While he is unique

And a desperate soul, within whose

Until winds of storms blew him

Core the only desire has died.

وتائهٍ ضاعَ بَيْنَ القِفارِ

وهْوَ فَريدُ

While he wandered

And a wanderer lost within the wastelands,

My Lord, your mercy, for time

While he is all alone.

حتَّى طَوَتْهُ منَ

العاصِفاتِ رِيحٌ شَرُودُ

Is severe adversity

Until he was folded away by

O bird of poetry, roam

A stray wind from the storms.

ربَّاه رُحماكَ إنَّ الزَّمانَ

فَضٌّ شَديدُ

Upon the gloomy life

Oh Lord, Your mercy! For time

And wipe with your feathers the tears

Is harsh and severe.

يا طائرَ الشِّعْرِ رَوِّحْ

على الحَيَاةِ الكئيبَهْ

Of hearts, for they are estranged

Oh bird of poetry, bring solace

And distract it from its sorrow

To this melancholy life.

وامْسَحْ بريشِكَ دمْعَ

القُلُوبِ فهيَ غَريبَهْ

For adversity has exhausted it

And wipe with your wing the tears of

And you are a beautiful spirit

The hearts, for they are estranged.

وعَزِّها عَنْ أَساها

فقدْ دَهَتْها المُصيبَهْ

Among the barren plateaus

And console them for their sorrow,

So blow in it from the flames

For calamity has overwhelmed them.

وأَنتَ رُوحٌ جميلٌ

بَيْنَ الهِضابِ الجديبهْ

Of the sky a youthful spirit

For you are a beautiful spirit

And bring with your magic to

Amidst the barren hills.

فانفخْ بها من لهيبِ

السَّماءِ رُوحاً خَضيبهْ

Its heart the embers of youth

So breathe into them from the flame of

The heavens, a verdant spirit.

وابعَثْ بسحركَ في

قلبِها ضُرامُ الشَّبيبهْ

And resurrect with your magic within

Her heart the fire of youth.