طَوَيْتُ رَجائي عَنْكَ يا دَهْرُ إِنَّني

أَلوذُ بِظِلٍ مِنْ وَفائِكَ قالصِ

I have folded away my hope in you, O Time, for I

seek shelter beneath the shrinking shadow of your faithfulness.

وَيَرْميكَ ذَمِّي بِالتي لا شَوَى لَها

وَلَيْسَ يَسُوءُ الوَغْدَ لَذْعُ القَوارِصِ

My censure shoots you with arrows that never merely graze,

yet words of admonition do not sting the base man.

وكُلُّ كَريمٍ أَنْتَ آخِرُ رِزْقِهِ

على عُقَبٍ الحِرْمانِ أَوَّلُ ناكِصِ

To every noble man, you are the last to provide for him,

and the first to recoil in deprivation's wake.

تَهيمُ بِمَنْفِيِّ السُّحالَةِ زائِفٍ

وَتُعْرِضُ عَن صَافي السَّبيكَةِ خالِصِ

You dote on a counterfeit discarded among the filings,

and turn away from one whose ingot is pure and unalloyed.

فَلَمْ تَعْلَقِ البَأْسَاءُ إِلّا بِكامِلٍ

وَلا عَثَرَ النَّعْماءُ إِلّا بِناقِصِ

Thus adversity has fastened only upon the complete,

while prosperity has chanced upon only the deficient.