لِيَطرَبَ مَن شاءَ أَن يَطرَبا

فَلَستُ بِمُستَمطِرٍ خُلَّبا

Let whoever wishes to rejoice, rejoice

Let him rejoice who wishes to rejoice,

As for me, I shall not dance to their tune

But I shall not seek rain from a deceptive cloud.

عَرَفتُ الزَمانَ قَريبَ الأَذى

فَصِرتُ إِلى خَوفِهِ أَقرَبا

I know the times to be fraught with harm

I have known Time to be quick to harm,

So I draw ever closer to fear of it

So I have grown closer to fearing it.

وَهَذا الجَديدُ أَبوهُ القَديمُ

وَلا تَلِدُ الحَيَّةُ الأَرنَبا

And this novelty, its father is antiquity

This New Year is but sired by the Old,

A snake does not give birth to a rabbit

And the viper does not give birth to a hare.

أَرى الكَونَ يَرمُقُهُ ضاحِكاً

كَمَن راءَ في تيهِهِ كَوكَبا

I see the universe looking at it mockingly

I see the universe eyeing it with a laugh,

Like one who saw a guiding star in their wilderness

Like one who spots a guiding star in the wilderness.

وَلَو عَلِمَ الخَلقُ ما عِندَهُ

أَهَلّوا إِلى اللَهِ كَي يَغرُبا

Had people known what it concealed

Yet if creation knew what it holds in store,

They would have turned to God before nightfall

They would cry out to God for it to vanish.

وَلَو عَلِمَ العيدُ ما عِندَهُم

أَبى أَن يُمَزِّقَ عَنهُ الخِبا

Had the feast known what they concealed

And if the Holiday knew what lies within them,

It would have refused to tear off its festive garb

It would refuse to tear away its veil.

أَلا لا يَغُرَّكَ تَهليلُهُم

وَقَولَتُهُم لَكَ يا مَرحَبا

Do not be fooled by their ululations

Do not let their acclamations deceive you,

And their cries of "welcome" to you

Nor their cries of "Welcome!" greeting you.

فَقَد لَبَّسوكَ لِكَي يَخلَعوكَ

كَما تَخلَعُ القَدَمُ الجَورَبا

They have dressed you up only to strip you bare

They have robed you only to cast you off,

As a foot strips off its sock

Just as the foot casts off a sock.

وَلوعونَ بِالغَدرِ مِن طَبعِهِم

فَمَن لَم يَكُن غادِراً جَرَّبا

Betrayal is innate to their nature

They are fond of treachery by nature;

So let whoever was not a traitor, beware

He who is not a traitor will soon attempt it.

وَكائِن فَتىً هَزَّني قَولُهُ

أَنا خِدنُكَ الصادِقُ المُجتَبى

And though there be a stalwart whose words

How often has a youth stirred me with the words:

Shook me: "I am your faithful, chosen friend"

"I am your loyal, chosen friend."

أُرافِقُ مِن شَكلِهِ ضَيغَماً

يُرافِقُ مِن نَفسِهِ ثَعلَبا

His form is that of a hyena

I accompany the likeness of a lion,

While his soul is that of a cunning fox

While he harbors the soul of a fox.

هُمُ القَومُ أَصحَبَهُم مُكرَها

كَما يَصحَبُ القَمَرُ الغَيهَبا

That riffraff keep his company against their will

These are the people I am forced to keep company,

As the moon keeps the clouds' company

Just as the moon must accompany the dark.

أَرانِيَ أَوحَدَ مِن ناسِكٍ

عَلى أَنَّني في عِدادِ الدَبى

He sees me as the only devout one

I find myself more solitary than a hermit,

While I am among the beasts

Though I stand amidst a swarm of locusts.

وَأَمرَحُ في بَلَدِ عامِرٍ

وَأَحسَبُني قاطِناً سَبسَبا

And I revel in a prosperous land

I walk through a land teeming with life,

Thinking myself settled like the lark

Yet deem myself a dweller of the waste.

وَقالَ خَليلِيَ الهَناءُ القُصورُ

وَكَيف وَقَد مُلِأَت أَذأُبا

While my boon companion, the dove, coos

My friend claimed that bliss lies in palaces;

"How so, when it is teeming with serpents?"

But how so, when they are filled with wolves?

أَلفتُ الهُمومَ فَلَو أَنَّني

قَدَرتُ تَمَنَّعتُ أَن أَطرَبا

I have grown accustomed to worries, else

I have grown so accustomed to sorrows that if

I would have tried to avoid getting riled

I were able, I would refuse to be glad.

كَأَنَّ الجِبالَ عَلى كاهِلي

كَأَنَّ سُروري أَن أَغضَبا

It is as though mountains weigh on my shoulders

It is as if mountains rest upon my shoulders,

While my joy is in growing angry

As if my only joy lies in brooding.

وَكَيفَ اِرتِياحُ أَخي غُربَةٍ

يُصاحِبُ مِن هَمِّهِ عَقرَبا

How can my exiled brother find comfort

How can a stranger find repose

When his worries accompany him like a scorpion?

When he keeps company with the scorpion of his care?

عَتِبتُ عَلى الدَهرِ لَو أَنَّني

أَمِنتُ فُؤادِيَ أَن يَعتَبا

I blame fate, if only I could

I would have reproached Fate, had I but known

Protect my heart from blaming

My heart would be safe from reproaching me.

وَجَدتُك وَالشَيبُ في مَفرِقي

وَوَدَّعَني وَأَخوكَ الصَبى

I found you with grey hair at my temples

You found me with gray hair upon my temples,

While the days of your youth bid farewell

After youth, your brother, bade me farewell.

فَلَيسَ بُكائِيَ عاماً خَلا

وَلَكِن شَبابي الَّذي غُيِّبا

So my tears now are no ordinary tears

My weeping is not for a year that has passed,

But for my lost youth they flow

But for my youth that has vanished from sight.

فَيا فَرَحاً بِمَجيءِ السِنينِ

تَجيءُ السُنونُ لِكَي تَذهَبا

Oh, the coming of the years brings joy!

O what joy in the arrival of the years!

The years come only to pass away

The years arrive only that they may depart.

عَجيبٌ مَشيبِيَ قَبلَ الأَوانِ

وَأَعجَبُ أَن لا أَرى أَشيَبا

Wondrous is my greying before my time

My premature graying is a wonder, yet

More wondrous that I see no grey hair

It is more wonderful that I see anyone not gray.

فَإِنَّ نَوائِبَ عارَكتُها

تَرُدُّ فَتى العَشرِ مُحدَودِبا

For the trials I have weathered

For the calamities I have battled against

Would turn a lad of ten feeble

Would turn a boy of ten into a hunched old man.

وَيا بِنتَ كولَمبَ كَم تَضحَكينَ

كَأَنَّكِ أَبصَرتِ مُستَغرَبا

And you, daughter of Columbus, why do you laugh

O daughter of Columbus, how you laugh,

As though you saw something outrageous?

As if you have beheld a strange curiosity.

أَلَيسَ البَياضُ الَّذي تَكرَهينَ

يُحَبِّبُني ثَغرَكِ الأَشنَبا

Is not this whiteness you despise

Does not that very whiteness you despise

What makes your gap-toothed smile beloved?

Endear your pearly smile to me?

فَمَن كانَ يَكرَهُ إِشراقَهُ

فَإِنّي أَكرَهُ أَن يُخضَبا

Whoever hates its radiance

So let him who hates its radiance do so;

I hate that he should dye his hair

As for me, I loathe that it be dyed.

أُحِبُّكَ يا أَيُّها المُستَنيرُ

وَإِن تَكُ أَشَمَتَّ الرَبرَبا

I love you, oh enlightened one

I love you, O illuminated crown,

Even if you be the shaggiest of the Berbers

Even if you make the gazelles mock me.

وَأَهوى لِأَجلِكَ لَمعَ البُروقِ

يَ أَعشَقُ فيكَ أَقاحِ الرُبى

And for your sake I love the flash of lightning

For your sake, I love the lightning's flash,

O most ardent lover of the hills

And in you, I adore the daisies of the hills.

وَيا عامُ هَل جِئتَنا مُحرَماً

فَنَرجوكَ أَم جِئتَنا مُحرِبا

Oh new year, have you come prohibited

O Year, have you come to us in peace that we may hope,

That we should hope, or belligerent?

Or have you come waging war?

تَوَلّى أَخوك وَقَد هاجَها

أَقَلُّ سِلاحٍ بَنيها الظُبى

Your brother has turned his back and provoked it

Your brother departed having stirred up a storm

With the feeblest of weapons: gazelles

Where swords were the least of the weapons.

يُجَندِلُ فيها الخَميسُ الخَميسَ

وَيَصطَرِعُ المُقنَبُ المُقنَبا

On it the quintessential Thursday fights the quintessential Thursday

Therein, army strikes down army,

And peak contends with peak

And battalion wrestles with battalion.

إِذا اِرتَفَعَ الطَرفُ في جَوِّها

رَأى مِن عَجاجَتِها هِندِبا

When the gaze rises in its atmosphere

If one raised their eyes to its sky,

It sees lightning flashes from its clouds

They would see only clouds of dust and smoke.

وَجَيّاشَةٍ بَرقُها رَعدُها

تَدُكُّ مِنَ الشاهِقِ المَنكَبا

With rumbling and fiery rain

And a roaring engine whose lightning is its thunder,

Pounding the lofty peaks

Pounding the shoulders of towering peaks.

يَسيرُ بِها الجُندُ مَحمولَةً

قَضاءَ عَلى عَجَلٍ رُكَبا

The troops advance borne by it

The soldiers travel borne within it,

To swiftly fulfil their mission

Like fate riding swiftly upon wheels.

يَوَدُّ الفَتى أَنَّهُ هارِبٌ

وَيَمنَعُهُ الخَوفُ أَن يَهرُبا

The youth wishes he could flee

The youth yearns to flee,

But fear prevents his flight

Yet terror forbids him from flight.

وَكَيفَ النَجاة وَمَقذوفُها

يَطولُ مِنَ الشَرقِ مَن غَرَّبا

How to survive when its missiles

How can one escape, when its projectiles

Reach from far east to distant west?

Reach from the East those who fled West?

وَلَو أَنَّهُ في ثَنايا الغُيومِ

لَما أَمِنَ الغَيمُ أَن يُطلَبا

Even if he took cover in the clouds

Even were he hidden in the folds of the clouds,

The clouds would not be safe from it

The clouds themselves would not be safe from pursuit.

تَسُحُّ فَلَو أَنَّ تَهتانَها

حَيّاً أَنبَت القاحِلَ المُجدِبا

It wipes out everything, so if only

It pours down fire; were its torrent but rain,

Its havoc brought dead land to life

It would have made the barren desert bloom.

فَما المَنجَنيق وَأَحجارُهُ

وَما الماضِياتُ الرِقاقُ الَشبا

What use the catapult and its rocks

What now are the catapult and its stones?

Or the fleets of planes dropping bombs?

What use the sharp, thin blades of old?

إِن شَكَتِ الأَرضُ حَرَّ الصَدى

سَقاها النَجيعَ الوَرى صَيِّبا

When the earth complains of the heat of the battle

If the earth complains of the burning thirst,

The sky waters it with torrential rain

Mankind waters it with a torrent of blood.

فَيا لِلحُروب وَأَهوالِها

أَما حانَ يا قَومُ أَن تُشجَبا

Oh for these wars and their horrors!

O the wars and their horrors!

Is it not time, people, to be abashed?

Has the time not come, O people, to denounce them?

هُوَ المَوتُ آتٍ عَلى رُغمِكُم

فَأَلقوا المُسَدَّس وَالأَشطُبا

Death comes to you despite yourselves

Death is coming regardless of your will,

So cast aside your guns and sticks

So cast aside the revolver and the sword.

وَلِلخالِقِ المُلك وَالمالِكونَ

فَلا تَتبَعوا فيكُمُ أَشعَبا

To the Creator belongs all rule

The Kingdom and the kings belong to the Creator,

Do not follow among yourselves divergent paths

So do not follow the greedy among you.

وَلَم أَنسَ مَصرَعَ تيتانِكٍ

وَمَصرَعَنا يَومَ طارَ النَبا

Nor have I forgotten the fall of your Titanic

I have not forgotten the sinking of the Titanic,

And our fall the day grapes turned to ash

Nor our own sinking the day the news took flight.

فَمِن شِدَّةِ الهَولِ في صِدقِهِ

رَغِبنا إِلى البَرقِ أَن يَكذِبا

So terrible was the horror in its truthfulness

From the sheer terror of its truth,

We hoped lightning would prove it lied

We begged the telegraph to be lying.

لَيالِيَ لا نَستَطيبُ الكَرى

وَلا نَجِدُ الماءَ مُستَعذَبا

Nights we find no comfort in sleep

Nights when we could find no comfort in sleep,

No cool water to quench our thirst

Nor find any sweetness in water.

وَباتَ فُؤادِيَ بِهِ صَدعُها

وَبِتُّ أُحاذِرُ أَن يَرأَبا

My heart shattered and the wound stays open

My heart shattered along with her hull,

I lie awake fearing it will heal

And I dreaded lest it ever be mended.

وَلي ناظِرٌ غَرِقٌ مِثلُها

مِنَ الدَمعِ بِالبَحرِ مُستَوثِبا

My weeping eyes are drowned like the sea

My eye, like her, was drowned,

Leaping in the waters weeping

Plunging into a sea of tears.

إِذا ما تَذَكَّرتُها هِجتُ بي

أَخافُ مَعَ الدَمعِ أَن تُسرَبا

When I remember it, I am shaken

When I remember her, you stir within me;

Amidst tears, I fear I will collapse

I fear that you will flow out with the tears.

فَأُمسي عَلى كَبِدي راحَتي

أَخافُ مَعَ الدَمعِ أَن تُسرَبا

I lay my head down but find no rest

So I pass the evening with my hand upon my heart,

Amidst tears, I fear I will collapse

I fear that it will flow out with the tears.

خُطوبٌ يَراها الوَرى مِثلَها

لِذَلِكَ أَشفَقَ أَن تُكتَبا

Ordeals the world has seen its like

Calamities whose like the world has seen;

Therefore I dread they be recorded

Thus it dreaded that they be written down.

لَقَد نَكَبَ الشَرقَ نَكَباتِهِ

وَحاوَلَ أَن يَنكِبَ المَغرِبا

The East has endured its share of setbacks

It has afflicted the East with its disasters,

And tried to trip the West

And attempted to afflict the West.

وَأَشقى نُفوسُ بَني آدَمٍ

لِيُرضي السَراحين وَالأَعقُبا

Most wretched are the souls of Adam's children

And he made miserable the souls of Adam's sons,

To please generals and corporals

Only to satisfy the wolves and the eagles.

وَلَو جازَ بَينَ الضُحى وَالدُجى

لَقاتَلَ فيهِ الضُحى الغَيهَبا

If it could come between dawn and dusk

If he were to pass between the dawn and the dusk,

Dawn would battle dusk

The light would do battle with the dark.

لَعَلَّك تَمحو جِناياتِهِ

فَنَنسى بِكَ الذَنبَ المُذنِبا

Perhaps you may erase its crimes

Perhaps you will erase his crimes,

And we'll forget, thanks to you, the sin

So that through you we forget the sin and the sinner.

إِذا كُنتَ لا تَستَطيعُ الخُلودَ

فَعِش بَينَنا أَثَراً طَيِّبا

If you cannot be eternal

If you cannot achieve immortality,

Then live on in us as a virtuous legacy

Then live among us as a pleasant memory.

فَإِنَّكَ في إِثرِهِ راهِلٌ

مَشَيتَ السَواكَ أَوِ الهَيدَبى

For in your footsteps, you leave

For you shall depart in his footsteps,

One who walks your path, be it of thorns or dunes

Whether you walk with a slow pace or a swift one.