بدا لعيني تاعس ناعس

على الثرى في الصبح بالي الثياب

My eyes saw a wretched, gloomy man

A miserable, drowsy figure appeared before my eyes,

Lying on the ground in the morning, his clothes tattered

Upon the damp earth at dawn, in tattered clothes,

جاث على الرجلين جاني الحشى

والظهر هاوي الجسم ذاوي الشباب

Crouching on his knees, his ribs protruding

Crouching on his knees, with entrails wrung by pain,

His back hunched, his youth gone

With a bent back, a falling body, and withered youth.

فهاج من حزني ومن

كما يهيج النار عود الثقاب

So I was roused to sorrow and grief

It stirred up my sorrow and my anguish,

Like fire kindles a flint stone

Just as a matchstick kindles a fire.

ورحت من شعر إلى عبرة

والشعر والعبرة جهد المصاب

And I went from verse to tears

I turned from poetry to weeping,

For verse and tears express the pain of the afflicted

For poetry and tears are the utmost effort of the afflicted.

وقمت أدعوه على رأسه

لعلني أحظى ببعض الجواب

I stood over him and called out

I stood over him, calling out to him,

Hoping for some response

Hoping I might receive some reply:

يا أيها الأوي إلى حفرة

فى سفح طود عند ملقى الشعاب

O you lying in a grave

"O you who seeks shelter in a hollow,

On a hillside where the torrents flow

At the mountain's foot, where the ravines meet,

يا أيها الهاوي على وجهه

تحت أديم الجو فوق التراب

O you fallen on your face

O you who lies prostrate upon your face,

Under the canopy of sky over dust

Beneath the open sky and upon the dust,

يا أيها الملتم في طمره

كالقنفذ انهالت عليه الكلاب

O you buried in your grave

O you, curled up within your rags,

Like a hedgehog fallen upon by dogs

Like a hedgehog besieged by hounds,

هون من الغم عليك فما أحسـ

ـب إلا منه هذا الضباب

Be gentle in your grief, do not assume

Ease the burden of your grief, for I reckon

This is merely fog

That this heavy fog arises from nothing else.

أنومك الآن خدل لنا

أم لك أم أنك صلب الإهاب؟

Does sleep now deceive us

Is your sleep now due to numbness,

Or are you tough, unyielding?

Or is it that your skin has turned to stone?

لا تفعل الأحجار ما نمت في

جنبك والأحجار صم صلاب

Rocks do not act as you do

Even stones would not endure the state in which you sleep,

And rocks are hard and stubborn

Resting on your side, though stones are deaf and hard.

هل أنت إلا بشر مثلنا

أم أنت جن زال عنك الحجاب

Are you anything but a mortal like us

Are you not a human being like us?

Or are you a jinn relieved of your veil?

Or are you a spirit from whom the veil has been lifted?

لا بل فقير لم تجد رحمة

عند ذوي (الفيلات) ذات القباب

No, just a poor man who found no mercy

No, you are a pauper who found no mercy

In the houses of the wealthy with domed roofs

At the hands of those with domed villas.

بطونهم ملأى وأكياسهم

وأنت خاوي البطن خالي الوطاب

Their bellies are filled and purses overflowing

Their bellies and their purses are full,

While yours is empty, devoid of food

While your stomach is hollow and your vessels are empty.

ونومهم طاب وإحساسهم

وأنت مرتاع بقفر يباب

Their sleep is sweet, their senses calm

Their sleep is sweet, and their senses pleased,

While you lie anxious in a desolate place

While you lie terrified in a desolate wasteland.

طواك عسف الدهر في حفرة

بجانب الطود كطي الكتاب

Fate has crushed you in a grave

The tyranny of fate has folded you into a pit,

Beside a hill, like a folded book

Beside the mountain, just as one closes a book.

أقمت فيها سائر اليوم في

ضنى وفقر وعنا واكتئاب

Where you have stayed all day in

You remained there all through the day,

Distress, poverty, misery and melancholy

In emaciation, poverty, hardship, and gloom.

حتى إذا آن أوان الكرى

وصار جنح الليل مثل الغراب

Until the time of nightfall came

Until, when the time for slumber arrived,

And the wings of night spread like a raven

And the wing of night became black as a raven,

غضضت من عينيك مستغفيا

والسهد في عينيك قطر مذاب

I bid farewell, tears flowing from your eyes

You closed your eyes, seeking sleep,

The wakefulness in your eyes a melted bead

While insomnia burned in your eyes like molten lead.

وملت مثل القوس موتورة

بنبلها مشهورة للضراب

And you curled up like a bow, its string cut

You bent yourself like a strung bow,

Famous for shooting arrows

Drawn tight with arrows, ready to strike.

منكس العنق إلى الأرض من

همك والهم مذل الرقاب

Head bowed to the earth in sorrow

With your neck bowed toward the earth from

And sorrow humiliates necks

Your burden—for sorrow humbles even the proudest necks.

كأنما ليلك عيش امرىء

منذر قوم ما لهم من متاب

As if your night were the life of a man

It is as if your night is the life of a man

Who warned his people but they had no shelter

Warning a people who have no way to repent.

كأنما عينك في سهدها

عين علينا راصد كل باب

As if the wakefulness in your eyes

As if your eye, in its wakefulness,

Were eyes watching over us, guarding every door

Is a watchman over us, guarding every door.

شاهدت من شخصك ما راعني

ونالني منه أسى واضطراب

I saw in your figure something which startled me

I saw in your figure something that terrified me,

And caused me grief and turmoil

And I was seized by sorrow and unrest.

أبعد ما روعتني مصبحا

يلذ لي الطعم ويحلو الشراب

After I was alarmed in the morning

After you startled me at dawn,

When flavor pleased me and drink was sweet

Can food still delight me, or drink taste sweet?

أقسمت ما في العيش من راحة

سوى منى خلابة كالسراب

I swore there is no comfort in life

I swear, there is no comfort in this life,

Except what comes from me, a mirage

Save for beguiling hopes, elusive as a mirage.

والناس ويح الناس في وقفة

أو جيئة حول المنى أو ذهاب

Oh people! The people standing

And people—woe to people!—are stuck in a halt,

Or coming and going around hopes, how fickle!

Or pacing back and forth around their desires.

والنفس فيهم حكمت فهي لا

تفتأ تدعوهم إلى كل عاب

And the self judges them so it does not

The ego governs them, so it never ceases

Cease calling them to every fault

To summon them toward every shameful deed.

أما إذا أمعنت في مكرهم

فإنه والله شيء عجاب

But when I think on their schemes

If you look closely at their deception,

By God, it is an amazing thing

It is, by God, a truly astonishing thing.

مكر يحاكي الصدق في وضعه

وباطل منهم يحاكي الصواب

A scheme resembling truth in its making

Deceit that mimics truth in its guise,

Yet falsehood from them mimics right

And falsehood from them that mimics the right.

لولا الهدى من بعض أهل الهدى

أقسمت ما في الناس إلا الذئاب

If not for guidance from some guided people

Were it not for the virtue of a righteous few,

I swear there would be nothing in people but wolves

I would swear that among men there are only wolves.

هل آن لي الظعن فقد ضاق بي

مكثي على رغمي بهذا اليباب؟

Is it time for me to assail? For staying

Is it time for me to depart? For I am constrained

Despite myself in this wasteland vexes me

By remaining against my will in this desolation.

كيف يطيب العيش في معشر

شدوا عن المسكين فضل النصاب؟

How can life be sweet among a people

How can life be pleasant among a people

Who have denied the needy even scraps?

Who withhold the rightful share from the destitute?

كأنهم ليس لهم ذمة

وليس فيهم مؤمن بالحساب

It is as if they have no covenant

As if they possess no honor,

And no belief in the Reckoning

And not one among them believes in the Day of Reckoning.

يا أيها المثرون هبوا إلى

إسعاف أهل الفقر فالفقر ناب

O you who hoard, come to

O you wealthy ones, rise up to

Aid the poor, for poverty brings ruin

Aid the poor, for poverty is a piercing fang

ونال من إخوانكم واحتوى

عليهم والفقر أس الخراب

And has afflicted your brothers, overwhelming them

That has seized your brothers and engulfed

For poverty destroys all things

Them completely—for poverty is the root of all ruin."