لعمرُك إنَّ العدلَ لفظٌ اداؤُهُ

بسيطٌ ولكن كنهُه متعسِّرُ

By your life, justice is a word whose practice

Is simple, yet its essence is difficult.

تخيَّلَه عقلٌ نشيطٌ أرادَه

دليلاً لقومٍ في الحياة تعثَّروا

An active mind imagined it

As evidence for people who stumbled in life.

يفسِّرُهُ المغلوبُ أمراً مناقضاً

لما يرتأيهِ غالبٌ ويفسِّر

The defeated interpret it as something contrary

To what the victor interprets and explains.

ولما رآه الحاكمون قذيفةً

تُضعضِعُ من أهوائهم وتدمِّر

And when the rulers saw it as a projectile

That would shake their whims and destroy them,

ولم يجدوا مَندوحةً عن قَبوله

لإرضاءِ مخدوعينَ بالعدل غَّرروا

And found no escape from accepting it

To satisfy those deceived by justice, they fooled,

أتَوه بتاؤيلاتِهم يُفسدونه

قوانينَ باسم العدل تَنهى وتأمُر

They corrupted it with their interpretations,

Laws in the name of justice that forbid and command.

لقد كانَ أولى بالرفاهِ وبالغِنى

ذكيُ فؤادٍ جائع يتضوَّر

Indeed, the keen heart of the hungry poor

Was more deserving of prosperity and wealth.

وقد كان أولى بالحفاءِ وبالعَرى

وبالجوعِ هذا الأبلهُ المتبختِر

And the foolish arrogant one was more deserving

Of deprivation, nakedness, and hunger.