كُلُّ مَيتٍ مَهما عَلا في حَياتِهِ

كُلُّ ثاوٍ تَحتَ الثَرى مِن لِداتِه

Every dead man, no matter how high he was in life

Every dead man, however exalted in his life,

Every worn out, under the soil, from his origins

Is but a peer to every dweller beneath the soil.

لا حُدود وَلا مَقايِّسُ في المَوتِ

تَساوى الجَميعُ في ساحاتِه

No limits or standards in death

In death, there are no boundaries or measures;

Everyone is equal in its domains

All are equal within its vast domains.

حاصِدٌ حَقلَهُ الوجود وَما الأَحياءُ

إِلّا كَشَوكِه وَنَباتِه

It harvests its existence and what the living are

A reaper whose field is existence itself, and the living

Just like its thorns and plants

Are but as its thorns and its vegetation.

مَن نَجا مِنه وَهوَ في رَوحاتِهِ

إِنَّما قَد نَجا إِلى غُدواتِه

Who survived it while it was in its respite

He who escapes it during his evening departures

He only survived to its mornings

Has merely survived until his morning returns.

لَيسَ زَرعُ الغَصّاتِ مِنهُ لِثَأرٍ

لَيسَ حَصدُ اللَذاتِ مِن لَذّاتِه

Not planting thorns is not out of revenge

Its sowing of choking grief is not out of vengeance,

Not harvesting pleasures is not out of its pleasures

Nor is its harvesting of pleasures done for delight.

إِنَّهُ يَسلُبُ الغِوايَةَ كَالرُشدِ

فَلَيسَ التَميِّزُ مِن عاداتِه

It robs delusion like sanity

It snatches away folly just as it does wisdom;

So distinction is not one of its habits

For discrimination is not among its habits.

لا تَقُل ما رَأوهُ ذاكَ سِرٌّ

خَبَأَتهُ الحَياةُ في ظُلُماتِه

Do not say what they saw is secret

Do not ask, "What have they seen?"—that is a secret

Life has hidden it in its darkness

Which life has concealed within its shadows.

رُبَّ قَبرٍ نَمشي عَلَيه وَفيهِ

شَهَواتٌ تُربي عَلى ذَراتِه

Perhaps a grave that we walk on and in it

How many a grave we tread upon, wherein lie

Desires breeding on its particles

Desires that outnumber its very dust motes.

كُلُّ ذي رَغبَةٍ دَنَت أَو تَسامَت

سَوفَ يَمضي يَوماً بِلا رَغَباتِه

Everyone with a desire drew near or aloft

Every possessor of desire, be it base or sublime,

Will one day pass without his desires

Shall one day depart, stripped of his desires.

لَيسَ عُمرُ الفَتى وَإِن طالَ إِلّا

ما حَوَتهُ الحَياةُ مِن مَكرُماتِه

Not the youth’s life, even if it is long, except

A man's life, however long it may last, is nothing

What life contained for him of virtues

Save for the noble deeds his life encompassed.

يَعيظُ النابِغُ الخَلائِقَ حَيّاً

إِنَّما مَوتُهُ أَجَلُّ عِظاتِه

The eminent preaches to people alive

The genius admonishes creation while alive,

Yet his death is the greatest of his sermons

Yet his death remains the greatest of his sermons.

ظَهَرَ المَوتُ لِلعُيونِ جَديداً

أَمسُ في بَطشِه وَفي فَتَكاتِه

Death appeared to the eyes anew

Death has appeared to our eyes in a new guise,

Yesterday in its tyranny and in its killings

As shown yesterday in its assault and deadly strikes.

وَهوَ تُربُ الإِنسانِ مُنذُ اِستَ

وى في الأَرضِ حَيّاً يَمشي عَلى خُطُواتِه

It is man's soil since he settled

Yet it has been man's companion since he first

Alive walking in its footsteps

Stood upon the earth and walked his path.

وَما الرَدى بِالحَديثِ في الناسِ لَكِن

نُكتَةُ العِلمِ ضاعَفَت رَوعاتِه

And decay is not new to people but

Destruction is no stranger among mankind, yet

The subtlety of knowledge multiplied its horrors

The loss of knowledge has doubled its terror.

فَقَدَ الخَلقُ واحِداً مِن بَينِهِ

وَأَضاعَ القَريضُ خَيرَ حِماتِه

So people lost one from amongst them

The people have lost a single one from their midst,

And the poem lost the best of its defenders

While poetry has lost the finest of its guardians.

شاعِرٌ كانَ يَرقُصُ الدَهرُ أَحياناً

وَيَبكي حيناً عَلى نَغَماتِه

A poet who sometimes danced life

A poet to whose melodies Time would sometimes dance,

And sometimes cried to his melodies

And at other times would weep.

ذَهَب الساحِرون وَالسِحرُ باقٍ

في عُيونِ المَهى وَفي كَلِماتِه

The sorcerers are gone but sorcery remains

The magicians have departed, yet the magic remains

In the eyes of passion and in his words

In the eyes of fair maidens and in his words.

مُنشِئٌ رَقَّ لَفظُهُ كَسَجاياهُ

وَرَفَّ الجَمالُ في جَنَباتِه

A composer whose utterance was soft like his features

A writer whose phrasing was as tender as his nature,

And beauty fluttered in his side

While beauty fluttered all around him.

تَوَّجَ الضادَ بِالمَلاحَةِ حَتّى

خالَها القَومُ بَعضَ مُختَرعاتِه

He crowned the Dhad with wit until

He crowned the Arabic tongue with such grace that

The people likened it to some of his inventions

The people imagined it was of his own invention.

نَقَلَ الأَعصُرَ الخَوالي إِلَينا

في كِتابٍ لِلَّهِ مِن مُعجِزاتِه

He conveyed past eras to us

He transported the bygone ages to us

In a book to God from among his miracles

In a book that stands as one of God's miracles.

فَرَأَينا هوميرُ يُنشِدُ فينا

شِعرُهُ مِثلُ واحِدٍ مِن رُواتِه

So we saw Homer chanting in us

Thus we saw Homer reciting amongst us,

His poetry like one of his own transmitters

His verses flowing as if from one of his own bards.

كانَ في دَولَةِ السُيوف وَزيراً

أَلمَعِيّا وَدَولَةً في ذاتِه

He was in the state of swords a minister

In the empire of swords, he was a minister,

Brilliant and a state within himself

Brilliant of mind, and a sovereign state within himself.

ما بَكَينا الرُفاتَ لَمّا بَكَينا

كَم رُفاتٍ في الأَرضِ مِثلُ رُفاتِه

We did not cry for the remains when we cried

When we wept, it was not for the mortal remains;

How many remains on earth like his remains?

For how many remains lie in the earth like his?

بَل بَكَينا لِأَنَّنا قَد حُرِمنا

بِالمَنونِ المَزيدَ مِن آياتِه

But we cried because we were deprived

Rather, we wept because we have been deprived

By death of more of his signs

By death, of any further masterpieces from him.

راعَنا أَن يَزولَ عَنّا وَإِنّا

لَم نُطِق أَن نُطيلُ جيلَ حَياتِه

We feared it would disappear from us while we

It appalled us that he should pass from us, for we

Did not manage to prolong the age of its life

Could not bear our inability to prolong his span of life.

قَد أَرَدنا حَملَ البَشائِرِ لِلعِلمِ

فَكُنّا لِأَهلِهِ مِن نُعاتِه

We wanted to carry the good tidings of knowledge

We had wished to bear good tidings to the world of knowledge,

So we were among its attributes

Yet instead, we became the bearers of his elegy.

إِنَّ في مِصر وَالشَآمِ دَوِيّاً

ما سَمِعناهُ قَبلَ يَومِ وَفاتِه

There is in Egypt and Syria an echo

Indeed, in Egypt and the Levant, there is a resounding echo

We did not hear the day before his death

Such as we had never heard before the day of his death.

وَأَحَسَّ العِراقُ حينَ أَتاهُ

النَعيُ طَعمَ الرَدى بِماءِ فُراتِه

And Iraq felt when the news came to it

And Iraq, when the news reached it,

The taste of decay with the waters of its Euphrates

Tasted the bitterness of death in the waters of its Euphrates.

وَبِلُبنانَ رَجفَةٌ تَتَمَشّى

في يَنابيعِه وَفي نَسَماتِه

And in Lebanon a tremor walks

And in Lebanon, a tremor runs through

In its springs and in its breeze

Its flowing springs and its gentle breezes.

فَتَّحَ المَوتُ حينَ أَغمَضَ عَينَيهِ

عُيونَ الوَرى عَلى حَسَناتِه

So death opened when it closed his eyes

Death, in closing his eyes, has opened

The eyes of the world to his virtues

The eyes of mankind to his virtues.

فَهوَ ماضٍ لَهُ جَلالَةُ آتٍ

مِن فُتوحاتِه وَمِن غَزَواتِه

He is gone, for him is the majesty of a comer

He is a departing figure who commands the majesty of one approaching,

From his openings and from his conquests

Fresh from his conquests and his victories.

وَالفَتى العَبقَرِيُّ يولَدُ إِذ يولَدُ

في مَهدِه وَيَومَ مَماتِه

And the brilliant youth is born when he is born

For the genius is truly born both when he lies

In his cradle and the day of his death

In his cradle, and on the day of his death.