ماله ايقظ الشجون فقاست

وحشة الليل واستثار الخيالا

Why has he awakened sorrows, so the night's solitude became severe,

And imagination was stirred?

ماله فى مواكب الليل يمشى

ويناجى اشباحه والظلالا

Why does he walk in processions of the night,

Conversing with its ghosts and shadows?

هين تستخفه بسمة الطفل

قوي يصارع الاجيالا

Beware the smile of the child belittles him,

A strong one wrestling generations.

حاسر الرأس عند كل جمال

مستشف من كل شئ جمالا

Baring his head before every beauty,

Seeking to extract beauty from everything.

ماجن حطم القيود وصوفى

قضى العمر نشوة وابتهالا

A Sufi who broke the shackles and attained

A lifetime of rapture and supplication.

خلقت طينة الأسى وغشتها

نار وجد فاصبحت صلصالا

Made from the clay of sadness and coated with

Fire and fervor thus becoming refined steel.

ثم صاح القضاء كونى فكانت

طينة البؤس شاعراً مثالا

Then destiny proclaimed: "Be!" And so it became

The clay of misery an exemplar poet.

يتغنى مع الرياح اذاغنت

فيشجى خميله والتلالا

Who sings with the winds when they sing,

Thus inspiring his companion and the hills.

صاغ من كل ربوة منبراً يسكب

فى سمعه الشجون الطوالا

He made every hilltop a pulpit from which

He pours upon his hearing long sorrows.

هو طفل شاد الرمال قصورا

هى آماله ودك الرمالا

He is a child who built from sand, palaces,

Which are his hopes, though he razed the sands.

كالعود ينفح العطر للناس

ويفنى تحرقاً واشتعالا

Like a fragrant branch perfuming people,

Though it withers from burning and inflammation.