جُعتُ وَالخُبزُ وَفيرٌ في وِطابي

وَالسَنا حَولي وَروحي في ضَبابِ

I gathered, though bread was scarce in my abode

I starved while bread was plentiful in my sacks,

And years around me, and my soul in haze

And though radiance surrounded me, my soul remained in fog.

وَشَرِبتُ الماءَ عَذباً سائِغاً

وَكَأَنّي لَم أَذُق غَيرَ سَرابِ

I drank the water fresh and sweet

I drank water that was fresh and sweet,

As though I'd tasted naught but mirage all my days

Yet it was as if I tasted nothing but a mirage.

حَيرَةٌ لَيسَ لَها مَثَلٌ سِوى

حَيرَةِ الزَورَقِ في طاغي العُبابِ

A bafflement, none other can compare

A bewilderment unmatched by anything, save for

Save a boat in stormy seas and towering waves

The bewilderment of a skiff amidst the tyrannical waves.

لَيسَ بي داءٌ وَلَكِنّي اِمرُؤٌ

لَستُ في أَرضي وَلا بَينَ صَحابي

No sickness plagues me, just a man am I

No illness afflicts me, yet I am a man

Who's not in native land or with his mates

Who is neither in his own land nor among his companions.

مَرَّتِ الأَعوامُ تَتلو بَعضَها

لِلوَرى ضِحكي وَلي وَحدي اِكتِئابي

Years passed, succeeding each the one before

The years have passed, following one after another;

My land laughed, while I grieved in solitude

My laughter belongs to the crowds, while my melancholy is mine alone.

كُلَّما اِستَولَدتُ نَفسي أَمَلاً

مَدَّتِ الدُنيا لَهُ كَفَّ اِغتِصابِ

Whene'er I fostered in myself some hope

Whenever I sought to birth a hope from within myself,

Did life extend its fist to seize and snatch away

The world extended a hand to violently snatch it away.

أَفلَتَت مِنّي حَلاواتُ الرُؤى

عِندَما أَفلَتُّ مِن كَفّي شَبابي

The sweet illusions slipped from me

The sweetness of visions has slipped away from me,

When from my hands did youth itself depart

Just as I let my youth slip through my fingers.

بِتُّ لا الإِلهامُ بابٌ مُشَرَعٌ

لي وَلا الأَحلامُ تَمشي في رِكابي

No more's inspiration's door ajar for me

I have come to be where inspiration is no longer an open door for me,

Or do my dreams walk in my footsteps' prints

Nor do dreams march any longer in my retinue.

أَشتَهي الخَمرَ وَكَأسي في يَدي

وَأُحِسُّ الروحَ تَعرى في ثِيابي

I crave wine, and my cup's held in my grip

I crave wine though my cup is in my hand,

While I can feel my soul from robes slip

And I feel my soul standing naked beneath my clothes.

يا رِفاقي حَطِّموا أَقداحَكُم

لَيسَ في دَنِّيَ خَمرٌ لِاِنسِكابِ

Oh friends, break your vessels in disdain

O my comrades, shatter your goblets;

For in my world no wine for pouring remains

There is no wine left in my cask to pour.

جَفَّ ضَرعُ الشِعرِ عِندي وَذَوى

وَلَكَم عاشَ لِمَريٍ وَاِحتِلابِ

For me poetry's udder's dried up and gone

The wellspring of poetry within me has dried up and withered,

Though long it lived on Marri and cavil and fray

After having lived so long to be milked and drawn upon.

أَيُّها السائِلُ عَنّي مَن أَنا

أَنا كَالشَمسِ إِلى الشَرقِ اِنتِسابي

You ask who am I? I hail, like the sun, from the east

O you who ask about me, wondering who I am:

Steel is the language my tongue spoke yesterday

I am like the sun; my lineage belongs to the East.

لُغَةُ الفولاذِ هاضَت لُغَتي

لا يَعيشُ الشَدوُ في دُنيا اِصطِخابِ

No ardor survives in a world full of qualms and unease

The language of steel has fractured my tongue;

I make no complaint if others their sorrows relay

For song cannot survive in a world of clamor.

لَستُ أَشكو إِن شَكا غَيري النَوى

غُربَةُ الأَجسامِ لَيسَت بِاِغتِرابِ

For exile of bodies cannot estrangement imply

I do not complain, even if others lament the distance,

I'm like the vine, if abroad it did not stray

For the exile of the body is not true alienation.

أَنا كَالكَرمَةِ لَو لَم تَغتَرِب

ما حَواها الناسُ خَمراً في الخَوابي

No wine for people's cellars would thereby

I am like the grapevine: had it not been transplanted,

I'm like the lily, if it did not wander

People would never have stored its essence as wine in their jars.

أَنا كَالسَوسَنِ لَو لَم يَنتَقِل

لَم يُتَوَّج زَهرُهُ رَأسَ كَعابِ

No garland its flower would crown, atop the array

I am like the lily: had it not been moved,

I stand in New York in body, while my soul

Its bloom would never have crowned a maiden's brow.

أَنا في نيويوركَ بِالجِسمِ وَبِالـ

ـروحِ في الشَرقِ عَلى تِلكَ الهِضابِ

Dwells in the east, on those plateaus far away

I am in New York in body, but in

In smile of dawn, in silence of gloaming

Spirit I am in the East, upon those very hills.

في اِبتِسامِ الفَجرِ وَفي صَمتِ الدُجى

في أَسى تِشرينَ في لَوعَةِ آبِ

In autumn's grief, in August's dismay

In the smile of the dawn and the silence of the night,

I am, in Ghouta, a bud and a dew

In the sorrow of Tishrin and the burning anguish of August.

أَنا في الغوطَةِ زَهرٌ وَنَدىً

أَنا في لُبنانَ نَجوى وَتَصابي

I am, in Lebanon, a whisper and ardour in play

In the Ghouta I am a flower and the dew;

Lord, grant me return to my country

In Lebanon, I am whispered secrets and youthful passion.

رَبِّ هَبني لِبِلادي عَودَةً

وَليَكُن لِلغَيرِ في الأُخرى ثَوابي

And let others gain reward in their own homeland to stay

O Lord, grant me a return to my homeland,

You who come from that zeal, O youth

And let others have my reward in the Hereafter.

أَيُّها الآتونَ مِن ذاكَ الحِمى

يا دُعاةَ الخَيرِ يا رَمزَ الشَبابِ

Harbingers of good, emblems for youth under way

O you who come from that sanctuary,

How we trundled and how you trundled for wishes

O advocates of good, O symbols of youth.

كَم هَشَشنا وَهَشَشتُم لِلمُنى

وَبَكَيتُم وَبَكَينا في مُصابِ

And you wept and we wept in tribulations' affray

How often we, like you, rejoiced in our hopes,

In a struggle we shared, or an ordeal or distress

And how you wept, as we did, in times of calamity.

وَاِشتَرَكنا في جِهادٍ أَو عَذابِ

وَاِلتَقَينا في حَديثٍ أَو كِتابِ

And we met in discourse or perusing essays

We shared in the struggle or the suffering,

You knew and we knew, like yourselves

And we met through conversation or in writing.

وَعَرَفتُم وَعَرَفنا مِثلَكُم

أَنَّما الحَقُّ لِذي ظُفرٍ وَنابِ

That right is for victor, however bloodied the fray

You learned, and we learned just like you,

Each land that its people neglect

That rights belong only to those with fang and claw.

كُلُّ أَرضٍ نامَ عَنها أَهلُها

فَهيَ أَرضٌ لِاِغتِصابٍ وَاِنتِهابِ

Becomes one for pillage and plunder and prey

Every land whose people slumber in neglect

But in your faces, I espy

Is a land destined for usurpation and plunder.

إِنَّني أَلمَحُ في أَوجُهِكُم

دَفقَةَ النورِ عَلى تِلكَ الرَوابي

A glow on those hills that does flood o'er the way

Truly, I glimpse within your faces

And specters of years gone before I behold

The burst of light upon those hills.

وَأَرى أَشباحَ أَعوامٍ مَضَت

في كِفاحٍ وَنِضالٍ وَوَثابِ

In struggle, resistance, stand, and foray

And I see the ghosts of years gone by,

And figures of an era, refulgent, arising

Spent in struggle, resistance, and bold leaps.

وَأَرى أَطيافَ عَصرٍ زاهِرٍ

طالِعٍ كَالشَمسِ مِن خَلفِ الحِجابِ

Like the sun, from beyond the veil's curtained doorway

And I see visions of a flourishing age,

Would that it hastens, so I see it still

Rising like the sun from behind the veil.

لَيتَهُ يُسرِعُ كَي أُبصِرَهُ

قَبلَ أَن أَغدو تُراباً في التُرابِ

Before to dust in the dust I decay

Would that it hasten, so I might behold it

Before I become dust within the dust.