أصابَتْكَ يا عيْنُ عيْنُ الحَسَدْ

فتَجْرُ النّدى والنّدامَى كَسَدْ

Envy's eye has stricken you, O mine eye,

So you shed tears and regrets ceaselessly.

وُكِلت لكُلِّ شَهيرٍ خَطيرٍ

فقُمْتَ بهِ وسَدَدْتَ المَسَدْ

You were tasked with every perilous affair,

And accomplished it, mending all breaches.

ولمّا علَوْتَ وقُدْتَ الزّمانَ

بحَبْلٍ فأوْهَقْتَهُ منْ مَسَدْ

When you rose up high and led the times

With a rope, felling it from its eyrie,

رأى أسَداً منْ أُسودِ الرِّجالِ

لِذاكَ رَماكَ بِداءِ الأسَدْ

A lion among the bravest of men saw

A lion, so smote you with the lion's sickness.

تعَزَّ فَما ثَمَّ منْ كائِنٍ

يُصاحِبُهُ الكوْنُ إلا فَسَدْ

You grew insolent, so nothing in existence

Could be your companion but corruption.

وقدْ يتأتّى صَلاحُ النّفوسِ

وتَطْهيرُها بفَسادِ الجَسَدْ

Yet the purification of souls may come about

Through the body's decay—this is the creed.