قَصرُ الجَديدِ إِلى بَلى

وَالوَصلُ في الدُنيا اِنقطاعُهُ

The new palace is destined to ruin

The destination of all that is new is decay,

And connection in life is its disruption

And the end of union in this world is severance.

أَيُّ اِجتِماعٍ لَم يَصِر

لِتَشتُّتٍ مِنهُ اِجتِماعُهُ

What gathering has not scattered

What gathering has not eventually turned

From the dispersion of its gathering

Into dispersion, born of that very union?

أَم أَيُ شَعبٍ لِاِلتئا

مٍ لَم يُفَرِّقهُ اِنصِداعُهُ

Or what nation united

Or what joining meant for wholeness

Has not been divided by its breaking

Was not sundered by a fracture?

يا بُؤسَ لِلدَهرِ الَّذي

ما زالَ مُختَلِفاً طِباعُهُ

Oh the misery of time

O misery to Time, whose

Whose nature remains fickle

Nature never ceases to be fickle.

قَد قيلَ في أَمثالِهِم

يَكفيكَ مِن شَرٍّ سَماعُهُ

It has been said in their proverbs

It has been said in their proverbs:

Hearing of evil is enough for you

"It suffices you of evil merely to hear of it."