خَلِّ جَنبَيكَ لِرامِ

وَاِمضِ عَنهُ بِسَلامِ

Leave aside vain things

Turn your flank away from the archer,

And pass by with peace

And pass him by in peace.

مُت بِداءِ الصَمتِ خَيرٌ

لَكَ مِن داءِ الكَلامِ

To die of silence is better

To die by the illness of silence is better

Than to suffer from speech

For you than the illness of speech.

رُبَّما اِستَفتَحتَ بِالمَز

حِ مَغاليقَ الحِمامِ

You may unlock with a key

Perhaps you have opened, with a jest,

The bolts of the baths

The bolted locks of death.

رُبَّ لَفظٍ ساقَ آجا

لَ نِيامٍ وَقِيامِ

Many a word has led

For many a word has driven the fates

To sleeplessness and waking

Of those asleep and awake.

إِنَّما السالِمُ مَن أَل

جَمَ فاهُ بِلِجامِ

The only safe man is he

The only one safe is he who curbs

Who bridled his mouth with a bit

His mouth with a steady rein.

فَاِلبِسِ الناسَ عَلى الصِح

حَةِ مِنهُم وَالسَقامِ

So clothe people in

So accept mankind in their soundness,

Health and sickness alike

And in their sickness too.

وَعَلَيكَ القَصدَ إِنَّ ال

قَصدَ أَبقى لِلحُمامِ

And be moderate, for moderation

And keep to moderation, for the middle path

Endures best for pigeons

Endures the longest against death.

شِبتَ يا هَذا وَما تَت

رُكُ أَخلاقَ الغُلامِ

You have grown old, O man,

You have turned gray, yet you do not leave

And not left the morals of youth

The habits of a boy.

وَالمَنايا آكِلاتٌ

شارِباتٌ لِلأَنامِ

Death's daughters

While the Fates are feasting,

Devour and drink all mankind

And drinking of mankind.