تَرجو السَّعادَةَ يا قلبي ولو وُجِدَتْ

في الكونِ لم يشتعلْ حُزْنٌ ولا أَلَمُ

My heart desires happiness, even if

You seek for happiness, O my heart, yet if it were to exist,

It were found in the universe, no sorrow would blaze, nor pain

No grief nor pain would ever kindle in the universe,

ولا استحالتْ حياةُ النَّاسِ أجمعُها

وزُلزلتْ هاتِهِ الأَكوانُ والنُّظمُ

Nor would the lives of all people be transformed

Nor would the lives of all mankind have turned to misery,

And these cosmic systems and organizations shaken

And these cosmos and their systems would be shaken to the core.

فما السَّعادة في الدُّنيا سِوَى حُلُمٍ

ناءٍ تُضَحِّي له أَيَّامَها الأُمَمُ

For happiness in this world is naught but a dream

For happiness in this world is nothing but a dream,

That nations sacrifice their days for

A distant phantom for which nations sacrifice their days,

ناجتْ به النَّاسَ أَوهامٌ مُعَرْبِدةً

لمَّا تَغَشَّتْهُمُ الأَحلامُ والظُّلَمُ

Deceiving people are wild delusions

Whispered to mankind by rowdy, drunken delusions,

When dreams and darkness befell them

When shadows and deep darkness overwhelmed their sight.

فَهَبَّ كلٌّ يُناديهِ ويَنْشُدُهُ

كأَنَّما النَّاسُ مَا ناموا ولا حلمُوا

So everyone calls out to it and chants it

So everyone rose up to call its name and seek it out,

As if people had not slept nor dreamed

As if the people had neither slept nor ever dreamt.

خُذِ الحَيَاةَ كما جاءتْكَ مبتسماً

في كفِّها الغارُ أَو في كفِّها العَدَمُ

Take life as it comes to you, smiling,

Take life exactly as it comes to you, with a smile,

In its palm a pearl or in its palm nonexistence

Whether its palm holds out the laurel wreath or nothingness.

وارقصْ على الوردِ والأَشواكِ متَّئِداً

غنَّتْ لكَ الطَّيرُ أَو غنَّتْ لكَ الرُّجُمُ

And dance on roses and thorns relaxed

And dance upon the roses and the thorns with steady grace,

Whether the birds sang for you or the stones were cast at you

Whether the birds sing out to you, or the falling stones.

واعملْ كما تأمُرُ الدُّنيا بلا مَضَضٍ

والجمْ شُعوركَ فيها إنَّها صَنَمُ

And work as life commands without bitterness

And do as the world commands without a hint of grief,

And restrain your feelings in it, for it is an idol

And bridle your emotions there, for it is but an idol.

فمنْ تأَلَّمَ لمْ تُرْحَمْ مَضَاضَتَهُ

ومنْ تجلَّدَ لم تهزأ بهِ القِمَمُ

For whoever suffered, his agony was not pitied

For he who cries in pain finds no mercy for his anguish,

And whoever persevered, the summits did not mock him

While he who bears it stoically is not mocked by the peaks.

هذي سعادَةُ دُنيانا فكنْ رجلاً

إنْ شئْتَها أَبَدَ الآباد يَبْتَسِمُ

This is the happiness of our worldly life so be a man

This is the happiness of our world, so be a man,

If you want it for all eternity, smiling

If you desire it, remain smiling through the endless age.

وإنْ أَردتَ قضاءَ العيشِ في دَعَةٍ

شعريَّةٍ لا يُغَشِّي صَفْوَها نَدَمُ

And if you want to spend your life at ease

But if you wish to pass your life in tranquility,

And poetic, not clouded by regret

A poetic peace whose purity is never clouded by regret,

فاتركْ إلى النَّاسِ دُنياهُمْ وضَجَّتَهُمْ

وما بنوا لنِظامِ العيشِ أَو رَسَموا

Then leave people their world and their clamor

Then leave to the crowds their world and all their clamor,

And what they built for the system of living or devised

And all the social orders they have built or devised.

واجعلْ حياتَكَ دوحاً مُزْهراً نَضِراً

في عُزْلَةِ الغابِ ينمو ثمَّ ينعدمُ

And make your life an flowering, verdant oasis

And make your life a blooming and verdant grove,

In the isolation of the forest, to grow and then vanish

That grows within the forest's solitude, then fades to naught.

واجعلْ لياليكَ أَحلاماً مُغَرِّدَةً

إنَّ الحَيَاةَ وما تدوي به حُلُمُ

And make your nights dreams warbling

And make your nights a realm of singing dreams,

For life and what it implies is a dream

For life, and all the noise it holds, is but a dream.