إنِّي أرى فأرى جموعاً جمَّةً
لكنَّها تحيا بِلا ألْبابِ
I see crowds, swarming crowds
I gaze and see a multitude vast and dense,
Yet they live devoid of reason
Yet they live without intellect or sense.
يَدْوي حوالَيْها الزَّمنُ كأنَّما
يدوي حوالَي جندلٍ وترابِ
Time rumbles around them as though
Time thunders around them, resounding as though
It rumbles around rubble and dust
It echoes around boulders and dust below.
وإذا استجابوا للزَّمانِ تَناكروا
وتَراشَقوا بالشَّوكِ والأحْصابِ
When they heed time, they disown each other
If they answer Time's call, they deny one another,
Exchanging thorns and stones
And pelt with thorns and stones every brother.
وقضوا على روحِ الأخُوَّةِ بينهمْ
جَهْلاً وعاشوا عيشةَ الأغرابِ
Destroying the spirit of brotherhood between them
They have slain the spirit of kinship in their breast,
Ignorantly, living like strangers
Through ignorance, living as strangers, unblessed.
فرِحتْ بهم غولُ التّعاسةِ والفَنا
ومَطامِعُ السّلاَّبِ والغَلاَّبِ
The ogre of misery and oblivion rejoiced at them
The ghoul of misery and doom rejoices in their plight,
As did the greed of despoilers and usurpers
Along with the greed of the spoiler and the conqueror's might.
لُعَبٌ تُحرِّكُها المَطامعُ واللّهى
وصَغائرُ الأحقادِ والآرابِ
They are playthings moved by greed and frivolity
Mere puppets set in motion by avarice and play,
Petty grudges and deceit
By petty malice and desires that sway.
وأرى نفوساً من دُخانٍ جامدٍ
مَيْتٍ كأشباح وراءَ ضَبابِ
And I see souls of stagnant smoke
I see souls fashioned from smoke, frozen and cold,
Dead, like ghosts behind a fog
Dead, like phantoms that mists enfold.
مَوْتى نَسُوا شَوْقَ الحياةِ وعزمها
وتحرّكوا كَتَحرُّكِ الأنْصابِ
Dead, forgetting life's passion and resolve
Corpses that forgot life's longing and resolve,
Moving like the movement of idols
Moving only as stone idols might revolve.
وخبا بهمْ لَهَبُ الوجودِ فما بقوا
إلاَّ كمحترقٍ من الأخْشابِ
The flame of existence has died down in them
The flame of existence has faded from their gaze,
Leaving them like burnt wood
Remaining but as charred wood from a blaze.
لا قلبَ يقتحمُ الحياةَ ولا حِجًى
يَسْمو سُمُوَّ الطَّائرِ الجوّابِ
No heart dares life, no ambition
No heart to storm life's gates, no mind to arise,
Soars like the flight of the intrepid falcon
To soar like the wandering bird in the skies.
بل في التُّرابِ المَيْتِ في حَزْن الثَّرى
تنمو مَشاعِرُهُمْ مع الأعشابِ
Rather, in the dead dust, in the sorrow of earth
Nay, in the dead dust, in the earth's rough bed,
Their feelings grow with the grass
Their feelings sprout where the weeds are spread.
وتموت خامِلَةً كزهرٍ بائسٍ
ينمو ويذبُل في ظلامِ الغابِ
And die suppressed like a wretched flower
And die in torpor, like a wretched bloom,
That grows and withers in the gloom of the forest
That grows and withers in the forest's gloom.
أبداً تُحدِّقُ في التُّرابِ ولا ترى
نورَ السَّماءِ فروحُها كتُرابِ
Forever staring at the dust, not seeing
Forever staring at the dust, never to see
The light of the sky - their spirit is dust
The light of heaven; for dust their souls must be.
الشَّاعرُ الموهوبُ يَهْرِقُ فنَّه
هدراً على الأقدامِ والأعْتابِ
The gifted poet squanders his art
The gifted poet pours out his art in vain,
Wastefully, under feet and boards
Wasted upon feet and thresholds, like rain.
ويعيشُ في كونٍ عقيمٍ ميِّتٍ
قَدْ شيَّدتْهُ غباوةُ الأحقابِ
And lives in a barren, dead universe
He dwells in a universe barren and dead,
Built by the blindness of the ages
Constructed by the folly of ages long fled.
والعالِمُ النَّحريرُ يُنْفِقُ عُمْرَه
في فَهْمِ ألفاظٍ ودَرسِ كِتابِ
The astute scholar spends his life
And the erudite scholar spends his age,
Understanding words and studying books
In parsing words and studying the page.
يحيا على رِمَمِ القَديمِ المجتَوى
كالدُّود في حِمَمِ الرَّمادِ الخابي
He lives on the ruins of the stale past
Living on the carrion of the detested past,
Like a worm in the embers' soot
Like worms in the embers of ash fading fast.
والشَّعبُ بينهما قطيعٌ ضائعٌ
دنياهُ دنيا مأكلٍ وشَرابِ
While the people between them are a lost flock
And the people between them are a herd astray,
Their world is one of food and drink
Their world but food and drink, day after day.
الويلُ للحسَّاس في دنياهُمُ
ماذا يلاقي من أسًى وعَذابِ
Woe to the sensitive in their world
Woe to the feeling heart in their domain,
What agony and torment he suffers!
What he meets of sorrow and bitter pain!
