لا يَجزَعَنَّ مِنَ المَنِيَّةِ عاقِلٌ

فَالنَعشُ مَن نُعِشَ الفَتى أَن يَعثُرا

Let no rational soul be dismayed by death;

for the bier is what lifts a young man when he falls.

وَالعَيشُ مِن عَشِيَ البَصيرُ أَصابَهُ

قَلبٌ وَإِسكانٌ فَسَمِّ لَتَدثُرا

And “life” comes from “the clear-sighted grew dim”: it has suffered

a reversal and a stilling—so name it a thing in which to shroud oneself.

وَالدَفنُ دِفءٌ في الشِتاءِ وَظُلَّةٌ

في القَيظِ حُقَّ لِمِثلِها أَن يُؤَثَرا

Burial is warmth in winter and shade

in summer's blaze—a shelter rightly to be preferred.

أَعني بِذالِكَ أَنَّهُ لي مُؤمِنٌ

مِن كُلِّ رُزءٍ في حَياتي أَثَرا

By this I mean that it safeguards me

from every calamity that left its mark upon my life.

إِنَّ الَّذي نَظَمَ الأَنامَ قَضى لَهُ

بِسُلوكِهِ النَكَباتِ حَتّى يُنثَرا

Indeed, He who strung creation together decreed that it

thread its way through afflictions until scattered apart.

وَالرَبُّ لَم يَزدَد وَلا هُوَ ناقِصٌ

ما قَلَّ مُلكُ إِلهِنا فَيُكَثَّرا

The Lord has neither increased nor is He diminished;

our God's dominion has never waned, that it should be multiplied.