كم تقصِدُ الماجِدِينَ الفاضِلِين وكم

تُعلِّمُ الكرماءَ البُخْلَ يا زَمنُ

How often you assail the noble and virtuous—and how often

you teach the generous to be miserly, O Time!

إذا تَوالت عنهم نائباتُك واِجْ

تاحَتْ فواضلَ ما يُولُونَهُ المِحَنُ

When your calamities beset them in succession and sweep—

away the abundance of all they bestow—those trials—

فكيفَ بالجُودِ والأحداثُ تسلُبُ ما

يُولَى به العُرْفُ أو تُسدَى به المِنَنُ

what, then, becomes of generosity, when events wrest away what

allows kindness to be bestowed or favors to be rendered?

شُغْلُ الزّمان بأهلِ النقصِ يرفعُهم

حَتَّى يُثَمِّرَ للوُرَّاثِ ما خَزَنُوا

Time busies itself with the deficient, raising them high,

until what they hoarded bears fruit for their heirs.

ألهاهُ عن كُرماءِ النّاسِ فهْو عَلَى

ذَوي المكارِمِ والأفْضَالِ مُضْطَغِنُ

This distracts Time from the generous among men; thus, against

those endowed with noble virtues and beneficence, it nurses a grudge.