إِن عَضَّكَ الدَهرُ فَاِنتَظِر فَرَجاً

فَإِنَّهُ نازِلٌ بِمُنتَظِرِه

If time has bitten you, then wait for relief,

If Fate should sink its teeth into you, await relief,

For it will come to the one who waits for it,

For it is surely descending to meet the one who waits.

أَو مَسَّكَ الضُرُّ أَو بُليتَ بِهِ

فَاِصبِر فَإِنَّ الرَخاءَ في أَثَرِه

Or if harm has touched you or you are tested by it,

Or if harm touches you, or you are tested by it,

Then be patient, for ease comes after hardship.

Then be patient, for ease follows closely in its wake.

كَم مِن مُعانٍ عَلى تَهَوُّرِهِ

وَمُبتَلٍ ما يَنامُ مِن حَذَرِه

How many restless ones has their recklessness undone,

How many are aided by fortune despite their recklessness,

And how many wary ones cannot sleep for their caution.

While the afflicted finds no sleep for all his caution.

وَآمِنٍ في عَشاءِ لَيلَتِهِ

دَبَّ إِلَيهِ البَلاءُ في سَحَرِه

And how many secure ones has calamity crept upon

And one who feels secure in the evening of his night,

In the darkness before dawn while they were sleeping.

Finds calamity creeping toward him at the break of dawn.

مَن مارَسَ الدَهرَ ذَمَّ صُحبَتَهُ

وَنالَ مِن صَفوِهِ وَمِن كَدَرِه

Whoever contends with time will blame its company,

He who has wrestled with Time condemns its friendship,

And attain its purity and also its bitterness.

Having tasted both its clear waters and its dregs.