سئمت على شرخ الشباب حياتي

فحرت ولم أملك على ثباتي

I grew weary of the vicissitudes of youth upon my life,

I have grown weary of my life at the very bloom of youth, confused and unable to maintain my composure.

So I wandered, unable to stand firm.

I see the fortune of base souls prospering, while the fortune of the noble soul is unfavorable.

أرى حظ أرذال النفوس مواتنا

وحظ كريم النفس غير مواتي

I see the lot of vulgar souls brought low,

So I feel a fear within my soul regarding Time, for I know that Time brings overwhelming floods of calamity.

While the lot of the noble soul does not favor.

I view the Universe as a Scripture sent down by God upon the spirit, its events serving as verses of admonition.

فأوجس في نفسي من الدهر خيفة

لعلمي بأن الدهر ذو غمرات

So I fear in my soul the deception of fate,

And I read, from the verses of misery, lines inscribed upon the pages of the cosmos.

For I know that fate has much turmoil.

A line of dependents stung by hunger, naked against the scorching wind, barefoot.

أرى الكون قرآنا من الله منزلا

على الروح والأحداث آي عظات

I see the universe as a Quran sent down from God

A line of widows screaming in pain from misery, never ceasing in their depression.

Onto the spirit and events – lessons of signs.

A line of exhausted orphans, cast down upon the cliff of affliction by the hand of stumbling misfortune.

وأقرأ من آي الشقاوة أسطرا

على صفحات الكون مرتسمات

And I read from the signs of misery some lines

A line of elders, gray like crescent moons, and is their grayness anything but a warning of death?

Inscribed on the pages of the universe.

A line of the ill-fated, deceived and humiliated, subjected to tragedies and disasters.

فسطر عياييل أمضهم الطوى

عراة على لفح الأثير حفاة

So there is a line of the most wretched, worn down

And above them is a line of all creation, criminals—by the life of Truth—piled upon criminals.

Naked in the biting air, barefoot.

Criminals upon whose line the observer sees a smear of night, for injustice is akin to darkness.

وسطر أيامى يصطرخن توجعا

من البؤس لا يفتأن مكتئبات

And a line of my days crying out in pain

Was this universe merely a notched sword, mutilating spirits and life-bloods?

From misery, ever depressed.

And was this universe a tormenting whip, flogging the sons of man throughout the years?

وسطر يتامى مرهقين تكبهم

على جرف البلوى يد العثرات

And a line of orphans, overwhelmed by exhaustion,

From a year that came with every calamity, to a year that came with every harm.

Tripped by the hand of stumbling on the edge of affliction.

I am weary, though I am but a son of twenty years, of events that never cease to rage.

وسطر شيوخ كالأهلة شيب

وهل شيبهم إلا نذير وفاة

And a line of elders, white-haired like the waning moon –

I turn my gaze again to probe the essence of their depths, but my gaze returns humbled and weary.

And is their white hair anything but a sign of death?

Blessed be the Lord of the Throne; I am not an atheist attempting to obscure the Truth with specious doubts.

وسطر مشائيم غرار أذلة

يسامون بالارزاء والنكبات

And a line of scorned outcasts, humiliated,

But my conscience reveals a sorrow to the heart, or inspires it with a complaint.

Branded with disgrace and setbacks.

So it pours from the rain-clouds of Truth a pure stream, and grows flowers in the garden of the intellect.

وفوقهم سطر من الخلق كله

جناة لعمر الحق فوق جناة

And above them a line of all mankind,

Blossoming into fresh, masterful poetry, dewy, delicious, with yearning breezes.

Sinners, by the life of truth, atop sinners!

The days go by with it like cooing doves, competing in song above the garden.

جناة يرى الرائي من الليل مسحة

على سطرهم والظلم كالظلمات؟

Sinners whom a seer sees in the dark of night

Thus was poetry: vessels of delicacy enfolding images of creativity.

A stain upon their line, and the darkness like darknesses.

I was enamored with it as a child, forging it like gold ingots cast in a mold.

فهل كان هذا الكون سيفا مشطبا

يمثل بالأرواح والمهجات؟

Was this universe an unsheathed sword

Stringing it as a necklace, arranged and orderly, of wondrous pearls with masterful beads.

Afflicting souls and bodies?

And a rhyme that came to resemble Joseph, in his blessedness and beautiful attributes.

وهل كان هذا الكون سوطا مبرحا

يدع بني الإنسان بالسنوات؟

Was this universe a cruel whip

I draped upon it robes woven from my feelings, and crowned it with whatever I wished of my thoughts.

Lashing the children of man for years?

Yet a people threw it into the darkness of their well, and oh, how many vermin are inside that well!

فمن ستة جاءت بكل ملمة

إلى سنة جاءت بكل آذاة

For from six came every ailment

I made them taste a cup of poison, bitter as colocynth, and overwhelmed them with the stabbing of my spear's edge.

To a year came every torment.

And I said to them: "Whoever turns a blind eye to his people's benefit, I shall assign against him an army of words."

سئمت وإن كنت ابن عشرين حجة

حوادث لا تنفك مستعرات

I grew weary, though I am but twenty pilgrimages old,

Thus is the Book of the Universe: admonition and wisdom, rebuke, reprimand, and the striking down of tyrants.

Of ceaseless, blazing tribulations.

If the readers were to take heed from just one reading of it, it would be for them the most blessed of readings.

اردد طرفي سابرا كنه غورها

فيرجع طرفي خاسئ النظرات

I send my eyes roaming like the peering scout,

And my eyes return, their gaze downcast.

تبارك رب العرش لمست بملحد

أحاول طمس الحق بالشبهات

Blessed is the Lord of the Throne! I have touched with a skeptic—

I try to obscure the truth with doubts.

ولكن وجداني ينم بحسرة

إلى القلب أو يوحى له بشكاة

But my conscience whispers remorsefully

To my heart or inspires it to lament.

فيسكب من مزن الحقيقة سلسلا

وينبت في روض النهى زهرات

So it pours from the crucible of truth a stream

And blooms in the meadow of propriety, flowers

تفتح عن غض من الشعر محكم

طلي شهي شيق النسمات

That open, from the intensity of poetry, mature,

A draft whose hospitality enchants the breeze.

تروح به الأيام شبه هواتف

تساجلن فوق الروض بالنغمات

The days bear it like melodies

Conversing above the meadow with melodies.

كذللث كان الشعر آليات رقة

على صور الابداع منطويات

Thus was poetry delicate mechanisms

Upon images of creativity, folded.

كلفت به طفلا فكنت أصوغه

سبائك تبر أفرغت بحصاة

I was tasked with it as a child, and I would forge it

Into ingots purified with a touchstone.

وأنظمه سمطا نضيدا منسقا

بديع اللئالي محكم الخرزات

And compose it into an orderly, coherent strand,

Refined, solidly strung pearls.

وقافية أمست تمثل يوسفا

بما فيه من يمن وحسن صفات

And a rhyme I made represent Joseph

In its blessings and beauty of qualities.

خلعت عليها من شعوري مطارفا

وكللتها ما شئت من خطراتي

I draped over it from my passions scarves

And crowned it however I wished from my dangers.

وقوم رموها في غياهب جبهم

ويا كثر ما في الجب من حشرات

Yet a people cast it into the gloom of their ignorance—

And how much vermin is in that gloom!

أذقتهم كأسامن السم علقما

وأوسعتهم طعنا بحد قناتي

I made them drink a poisonous drought,

And I stabbed them with the blade of my spear.

وقلت لهم: من يعش عن نفع قومه

أقيض له جيشا من الكلمات

And I said to them: Whoever lives without benefiting his people,

I will send against him an army of words.

كذلك سفر الكون وعظ وحكمة

وزجر وتوبيخ وقرع بغاة

Thus is the scripture of the universe preaching and wisdom,

Deterrence, rebuke, and reprimand of the wicked.

لو اتعظ القراء منه بختمة

لكانت عليهم أيمن الختمات

If the readers had concluded from it with belief,

Upon them would be the blessing of conclusions.