أين أمي ؟ فرّ لا يلوي به

مجتلى بدر و لا لألاء شمس

Where is my mother? A horse galloped away with her

Where is my yesterday? It fled, turning back for neither

Adorned with the full moon and the radiance of the sun

The spectacle of a full moon, nor the brilliance of a sun.

حازه الدّهر و مرّت فوقه

لجج أخطأها عدّي و حدسي

Time seized her and she passed over it

Time has claimed it, and over it have passed

My ships missed her, and so did my counting and guessing

Waves that eluded my counting and my guessing.

يالأمسي و هو يجتاز المدى

بين أشباح من الأيّأم خرس

Oh yesterday, as it was crossing the distance

Oh, my yesterday, as it crosses the expanse

Among the ghosts of grievous days, muted

Among mute ghosts of days.

مرّ في الآباد فاستوقفه

من لييلات شبابي ألف أمس

It passed through settlements, so I stopped it

It passed through eternities, and was halted by

From the nights of my youth, a thousand yesterdays

A thousand yesterdays from the brief nights of my youth.

عرفت فيه أخاها آيبا

من ربوع عافيات الذكر درس

I recognized in it her brother coming

They recognized in it their brother returning

From the meadows of our joyful memories learned

From ruined domains of faded and erased memory.

و انتحت فيه مكانا موحشا

هو مع وحشته ذروة رمس

And I picked in it a lonesome place

And they sought out within it a desolate place,

Which with its loneliness was the peak of carving

Which, despite its desolation, is the peak of a grave.

قال أمس هات عن صاحبنا

و ابعث الذكرى فطول العهد ينسي

It said yesterday, speak of our friend

A yesterday said: 'Tell us of our companion,

And send memories, for long absence makes one forget

And awaken the memory, for the length of time causes forgetting.

قد تملّيت به غضّ الصّبى

زير حسناء و ورقاء و كأس

I have been bored by his youthful folly

I delighted in him during the bloom of youth,

A leafy, soft and rosy wine cup

A constant companion of fair women, singing doves, and the wine cup.

كمنت للغيد في أشعاره

زينة الشيطان من غيّ و رجس

I lurked for the gazelle in his poems

There lay hidden for the fair maidens in his poems

An adornment of devilry, sin and sacrilege

The devil's adornment of transgression and impurity.

خالعا بردى عفاف و تقى

سادرا يصبح في الغيّ و يمسي

Shedding the garment of chastity and piety

Casting off the cloaks of chastity and piety,

Wandering misguided mornings and evenings

Recklessly spending his mornings and evenings in error.

يقطف الحسن على أوراقه

من شفاه عذبة الملمس لعس

Plucking beauty in his writings

Plucking beauty upon his pages

From sweet lips, smooth to the touch

From lips sweet to the touch, dark and red.'

قال أمس و أنا عهدي به

نضو أوراد و تسبيح و درس

It said yesterday, and I knew him

Another yesterday said: 'But my memory of him is

To be pure litanies, praises and lessons

Worn thin by litanies, glorifications of God, and study.

يعبد الله ففي محرابه

كعبة زهراء من نور و قدس

Worshipping God, so his pulpit

Worshipping God, for in his sanctuary

Is a radiant shrine of light and purity

Is a radiant Kaaba of light and holiness.

رضي الصوف فما يعرفه ...

ناعم الخزّ و لا غالي الدمقس

Content in Sufism, not knowing him

Content with wool, so he is unacquainted with

Of fine silk, nor of costly fabrics

Soft silk or expensive damask.'

ضحك الأمس فرنّت في الدّجى

ضحكة الثاكل في ليلة عرس

Yesterday laughed, ringing in the darkness

Yesterday laughed, and there rang out in the darkness

The laugh of one bereaved on her wedding night

The laugh of a bereaved mother on a wedding night.

و انثنى يخطب فيهم خطبة

أبلغ المنطق في أعذب جرس

And it leaned to preach to them a sermon

And he turned to deliver a sermon among them,

Most eloquent speech in the sweetest melody

With the most eloquent of logic in the sweetest of tones:

أين ما تروون عن صاحبنا

عري الحقّ فلا عذر للبس

Where is what you relate about our friend

'Where is all that you narrate about our companion?

Bare truth, no excuse for confusion

The truth is stripped bare, so there is no excuse for confusion.

أتقيّ و هو ينفي كلّ ما

لم يؤيّد بيقين أو بحسّ

Godfearing, denying all that

Is he pious, when he denies all that

Is not proven by certainty or senses

Is not supported by certainty or by the senses?

أخليع و الضنى يسلمه

في ربيع العمر من برء لنكس

Shedding all when destitution surrenders him

Is he a libertine, when illness hands him over

In the springtime of life from innocence to guilt

In the spring of his life from recovery to relapse?

هو _ يعفو الله عن آثامه

ساخر صوّر من سقم و يأس

He is - may God forgive his sins -

He—may God forgive his sins—

Mocking, depicting sickness and despair

Is a cynic, fashioned from sickness and despair.

مزّق الحقّ حجابا للدّجى

و انجلت نفسي في النّور لنفسي

He tore the veil of darkness

The truth has torn the veil of darkness,

And my soul shone forth in the light for itself

And my soul has been revealed in the light to myself.'