يَهْدِمُ دارَ الحياةِ بانيها

فأيّ حيّ مُخَلَّدٌ فيها

He who built the house of life destroys it

So what living being is immortalized in it?

وإن تَرَدّتْ من قبلنا أُمَمٌ

فهي نفوسٌ رُدّتْ عواريها

And if nations have declined before us

They are but bare souls that have returned

أما تَراها كأنّها أجَمٌ

أسوَدُها بيننا دواهيها

Do you not see them as if they were rocks

Blackened among us are their abrasions

إنْ سالَمَتْ وهي لا تسالمنا

أيّامُنا حارَبتْ لياليها

If they were safe when they did not make us safe

Our days warred against their nights

وَاوَحْشَتَا من فِراقِ مُؤنِسَةٍ

يميتني ذكْرُهَا ويحييها

And how lonely because of the absence of a companion

Whose memory kills me and gives me life

أذكرها والدموعُ تسبقني

كأنّني للأسى أجاريها

I remember her and tears outstrip me

As if I race against sorrow

يا بحرُ أرخصتَ غير مكترثٍ

مَنْ كنتُ لا للبياع أغليها

O sea you set sail uncaring

She whom I was not selling to the seller

جوهرةٌ كان خاطري صَدَفاً

لها أقيها به وأحميها

A jewel - my soul was the oyster

I sheltered it in me and protected it

أبَتّها في حشاك مُغْرَقَةً

وبتُّ في ساحليك أبكيها

I concealed it in your bosom drowned

While I weep for it on your coast

ونفحةُ الطيبِ في ذوائبها

وصبغةُ الكحل في مآقيها

The scent of perfume in its tresses

And the kohl dye in its eyes

عانَقَهَا الموجُ ثمّ فارقَها

عن ضَمّةٍ فاضَ روحها فيها

The wave embraced it then parted from it

From an embrace in which its soul poured

ويلي من الماءِ والتراب ومن

أحكامها ضِدّيْن حُكّمَا فيها

Woe to me from the water and the dust and from

The two contrary decrees that judged it

أماتَها ذا وذاكَ غَيّرَها

كَيْفَ من العُنْصُرَيْن أفديها

This and that killed it altered it

How can I ransom it from the two elements?