مَا كنتُ أَحْسَبُ بعدَ موتكَ يا أَبي

ومشاعري عمياءُ بالأَحزانِ

After your death, my father, I did not expect

I never thought, after your death, O my father,

With grief-blinded emotions,

When my feelings were blinded by grief,

أَنِّي سأَظمأُ للحياةِ وأَحتسي

مِنْ نهْرِها المتوهِّجِ النَّشوانِ

That I would thirst for life and drink

That I would thirst for life again, and sip

From its fiery, exuberant river,

From its glowing, intoxicated stream,

وأَعودُ للدُّنيا بقلبٍ خافقٍ

للحبِّ والأَفراحِ والأَلحانِ

And return to the world with a fluttering heart

And return to the world with a beating heart

For love, joy and music,

For love, for joy, and for melodies,

ولكلِّ مَا في الكونِ من صُوَرِ المنى

وغرائِبِ الأَهواءِ والأَشْجانِ

And everything in the universe of the images of bliss

And for all the cosmos holds of hoped-for visions,

And wonders of passions and ecstasies,

And the strange wonders of passion and sorrow;

حتَّى تَحَرَّكَتِ السُّنونُ وأَقبلتْ

فِتَنُ الحَيَاةِ بسِحْرِها الفتَّانِ

Until years passed and the charms of life came

Until the years marched on, and there approached

With its enchanting, tempting magic,

Life’s allurements with their captivating spell,

فإذا أَنا مَا زلتُ طفلاً مُولَعاً

بتعقُّبِ الأَضواءِ والأَلوانِ

And I still remain a child, fascinated

And lo, I found myself still a child, enamored

By pursuing lights and colors,

With chasing after the lights and the colors,

وإذا التَّشاؤُمُ بالحَيَاةِ ورفضُها

ضرْبٌ من البُهْتانِ والهَذَيانِ

While pessimism about life and rejecting it

And see: pessimism toward life and its denial

Is a kind of raving delirium.

Are but a form of falsehood and delirium;

إنَّ ابنَ آدمَ في قرارَةِ نفسِهِ

عبدُ الحَيَاةِ الصَّادقُ الإِيمانِ

Indeed, the son of Adam in his innermost being

For the son of Adam, in the depths of his being,

Is a true believer in life's servitude.

Is a true believer, a devotee of life.