يعيبُ رِجالٌ زَماناً مَضى

وَما لِزَمانٍ مَضى مِن غِيَر

Men blame the passing days of yore,

Men find fault with a time gone by,

Yet days of yore have no defect or flaw.

Yet time itself has not altered its nature.

أَرى اللَيلَ يَجري كَعَهدي بِهِ

وَأَنَّ النَهارَ عَلَينا يَكِر

I see night darkening as before;

I see the night running its course as I have always known it,

The sun and moon still keep our ancient law.

And the day returning upon us in its cycle.

وَلَم تَحبِسِ القَطرَ عَنّا السَما

وَلَم تَنكَشف شَمسُنا وَالقَمَر

The clouds withhold not from us rain they bore;

The heavens have not withheld their rain from us,

The stars still glitter as they used to draw.

Nor have our sun and moon been stripped of light.

فَقُل لِلَّذي ذَمَّ صَرفَ الزَمانِ

ظَلَمتَ الزَمانَ فَذُمَّ البَشَر

Then say to him who blames time gone before:

So say to the one who condemns the vicissitudes of time:

You wrong the time; go, blame the faults you saw!

"You have been unjust to time; blame instead mankind."