مَهْمَا تأمَّلْتُ الحياةَ

وَجُبْتُ مَجْهَلَها الرَّهِيبْ

No matter how I contemplate life

However long I contemplated life,

And delve into its tremendous mysteries

And traversed its terrible, dark unknown,

ونَظَرْتُ حولي لَمْ أَجِدْ

إلاَّ شُكُوكَ المُسْتَريبْ

And look around, I find naught

I looked around yet found no trace,

But doubts that perturb the mind

Save for the doubts of a skeptical mind,

حتَّى دَهِشْتُ وما أُفِدْتُ

بدهشتي رأياً مُصيبْ

Until I grow perplexed, and gain

Until I was dazed, yet gained no light

No insight from my perplexity

Of guiding wisdom from my awe,

لكنَّني أَجْهَدْتُ نَفْسي

وهيَ باديَةُ اللُّغوبْ

Yet I strive with all my soul

And yet I drove my weary soul,

Though it be weary and forlorn

Though signs of languor plainly showed,

وَدَفَعْتُها وهيَ الهزيلَةُ

في مُغالَبَةِ الكُروبْ

And spur it on, though it be frail

And urged it on, so frail and worn,

In the struggle against adversity

To struggle against the weight of woes,

في مَهْمَهٍ مَتَقَلِّبٍ

تُخْشَى غَوَائِلُهُ جَديبْ

In an uncertain endeavor

In a shifting wasteland, vast and bare,

Whose perils make one shudder

Whose perils are dreaded, whose soil is dry,

فإذا أصابَتْ من

مَنَاهِلِهِ شراباً تَسْتَطيبْ

But if from its springs

So if it chanced to taste from its

It finds a draft to relish

Watering places a pleasant draught,

أَروتْ جوانِحَهَا وذلك

حَسْبُها كيما تَؤُوبْ

It revives its being, and that

It quenched its inner thirst, and that

Suffices it, that it may repent

Sufficed to let it journey back,

ومَنِ ارتوى في هذه

الدُّنيا تَسَنَّمَهَا خَطِيبْ

And he who slaked his thirst in

For whoever drinks their fill in this

This life, ascended its summits

World, ascends it like a conqueror,

أَوْ لا فقد رَكِبَتْ من

الأَيَّامِ مَرْكَبَها العَصِيبْ

Or else the days have embarked him

Or if not, then it has ridden upon

On their miserable ship

The days on a steed most hard to tame,

وَقَضَتْ كما شاءَ الخُلودُ

وفي جوانِحِهَا اللَّهيبْ

And passed away, as eternity willed

And perished exactly as Fate decreed,

With fiery passion in its being

With the burning flame within its ribs.