هَذا كِتابُ فَتىً لَهُ هِمَمٌ

ساقَت إِلَيكَ رَجاءَهُ هِمَمُه

This is the book of a young man with ambition

His hopes have led him to you, driven by determination

غَلَّ الزَمانُ يَدَي عَزيمَتِهِ

وَهَوَت بِهِ مِن حالِقٍ قَدَمُه

Yet time has bound the hands of his resolve

And he has fallen from the grasp of his aspirations

وَتَواكَلَتهُ ذَوو قَرابَتِهِ

وَطَواهُ عَن أَكفائِهِ عَدَمُه

While his own kin have left him to his own devices

And his inadequacy has obscured him from his peers

أَفضى إِلَيكَ بِسِرِّهِ قَلَمٌ

لَو كانَ يَعقِلُهُ بَكى قَلَمُه

A pen confides in you his innermost secrets

If it could understand, its pen would have wept