عتبتُ على دَهري بأَفعاله الَّتي

براني بها بريَ السِهام من الهَمِّ

I reproached Time for those deeds of its

with which grief pared me down as arrows are pared,

ليصرِفَ عنّي فادِحاتِ نوائبٍ

أَضاقَ بِها ذَرعي وأَضنى بها جِسمي

hoping it would turn crushing calamities away from me—

calamities that cramped my powers and wasted my body.

فَقالَ أَلَم تَعلَم بأَنَّ حَوادثي

وأَخطارَها اللاتي تلمُّ بذي الفَهمِ

Then Time said: “Did you not know that my vicissitudes,

and their perils, which descend upon a person of understanding,

يضيقُ بها ذو الجهل ذَرعاً وإنَّما

إذا أَشكلت رُدَّت لِمن كان ذا علمِ

would leave the ignorant with no capacity to bear them? For it is only

when they grow perplexing that they are referred to one endowed with knowledge.”