الحمد للَه على ماق ضى

والشكر للَه على ما أمر

Praise be to God for what He has decreed,

and thanks be to God for what He has commanded.

فما أظنّ الأرض تحوى فتى

وجوده قد كان إحدى الكبَر

For I do not think the earth holds a youth

whose existence has been one of the great calamities,

مثل فتى يدعونه شاعرا

وما بغير الموت يوماً شعر

like a youth they call a poet,

who has never once felt anything but death.

حياته ليل دميمُ الرؤى

مروّع الأشباح كابى الصوَر

His life is a night of hideous visions,

with terrifying phantoms and dim images.

تفترس الأحداث آماله

وترتوى من دمها المنهمر

Events devour his hopes

and slake their thirst with their streaming blood.

أحمق منه وهو يبنى المنى

تلك المنى إذ تتحدّى القدر

More foolish than he, as he builds his hopes,

are those hopes when they defy fate.

أتى فلم يفرح بميلاده

إلا نديماه الأسى والفكر

He came, and none rejoiced at his birth

except his two boon companions, grief and thought.

حيران لا يعرف عن نفسه

إلا كما يعرف هذا الحجر

Bewildered, he knows of himself

only as much as this stone knows.

يبكى بلا دمع وفي قلبه

ما يغرق الدنيا إذا ما انفجر

He weeps without tears, while in his heart

lies what would drown the world if ever it burst.

وربّما زان له ضعفه

أن يشتكى آلامه للبشر

At times his weakness makes it seem good to him

to complain of his pains to humankind.

لكنّه يخشى مواساتهم

في محنةٍ الصبر فيها انتحر

But he fears their consolation

in an ordeal where patience has committed suicide.

فينطوى والله أدرى بما

يثور في بركانه من شرر

So he withdraws; God knows best what

sparks erupt within his volcano.

لا يعرف الصبر ولكنه

لمّا رأى طول الظلام اصطبر

He knows no patience, and yet,

when he saw the length of the darkness, he endured.

بين أمانيه وبين الردى

عهد قديم العهد باقي الأثر

Between his wishes and death

lies a pact of ancient standing, its effects enduring.

فكلما رفّ على أفقه

ضياؤُها عاجله فاندثر

And whenever upon his horizon there fluttered

their light, death overtook it, and it vanished.

وكل يوم مدّ من عمره

مقبرة في صحراء العمر

And every day added to his life

is a graveyard in the desert of life.

أجداثها الملقاة في جوفها

أحلامه المحترقات الزهر

The graves strewn within its depths

are his radiant, burned-out dreams.

وكل حينٍ عنده مأتم

لميت في قلبه يحتضر

And every moment for him is a funeral

for a dead one in his heart, still dying.

يمضى كما يأتي فلا نأمة

يبكى لها أو نغمة تدّكر

It passes as it comes: no murmur

to weep over, or melody to remember.

يهفو إلى النسيان في عالم

ليس من الأحزان فيه مفر

He yearns for oblivion in a world

where there is no escape from sorrows.

أخلاقه البيضاء ميراثه

عن الكرام الوالدين الغرر

His spotless virtues are his inheritance

from his noble, illustrious parents.

فهي الثراء الضخم إن فاقةٌ

حلّت به ومجده إن فخر

They are immense wealth if poverty

befalls him, and his glory if he boasts.

وفي حنايا صدره خافقٌ

دقّاته ثرثارة لا تقر

And in the folds of his breast is a beating heart,

whose beats chatter and never rest.

تدقّ باب القبر مجنونة

وتؤذن الثاوى بقرب السفر

Madly they knock at the grave's door

and warn the dweller that departure is near.

كم عاش للناس بأحلامه

وآب لم يحمد ولم يفتكر

How often he lived for others through his dreams,

and returned unpraised and unremembered.

يرثى لكل الناس في حزنهم

ويحتفى بعرسهم إن عبر

He feels for all people in their sorrow

and celebrates their wedding if he passes by,

حتى غدا في موجهم ذائبا

كأنه سمع لهم أو بصر

until he melted into their waves,

as though he were their hearing or their sight.

لكنهم والطين معبودهم

وأمهم أم الخنا والدفَر

But they—whose idol is clay,

whose mother is the mother of obscenity and stench—

هدّوا عليه ما بناه لهم

ولم يراعوا قلبه المنكسر

pulled down upon him what he built for them

and had no regard for his broken heart.

هذا يهوذاه الذي باعه

وذاك بيلاطسه المحتقر

This one is his Judas, who sold him;

that one is his despised Pilate.

في عمره حقل فسيح المدى

لم يدر ساقين ولا من بذر

In his life lies a field of vast expanse

that has known no waterers and no sower.

حقل من الأوهام تنمو به

أشجارها مختلفات الثمر

A field of delusions, where there grow

their trees, diverse in fruit.

الموت في زقّومها كامنٌ

والجنة الحمراء فيها سقر

Death lurks in their zaqqum trees,

and the crimson paradise contains Saqar.

نهاره قزمٌ سريع الخطى

معذب الآصال داجى البُكَر

His day is a dwarf, swift of step,

tormented in its evenings, dark in its mornings.

والليل وحشٌ فوقه جاثم

مشوّه الخلقة دامى الظُفُر

And night is a beast crouched over him,

misshapen, with a bloodied claw.

يظل يسقيه بلا رحمة

ويقرع الكاس له إن فتر

It keeps making him drink without mercy

and raps the cup for him if he falters.

فإن غفا مدّ له مسرحا

حدوده فوق مرامى النظر

And if he dozes, it spreads a stage before him

whose bounds lie beyond the reach of sight.

تمثل الأحلام في سجنه

رواية الماضي الذي قد غبر

In his prison, dreams perform

the drama of the past that has gone by.

رواية الماضي وفي بعثها

بعثٌ لتاريخ الأسى والسهر

The drama of the past—and in its revival

is the revival of a history of grief and sleeplessness.

قال وقد ضاقت به نفسه

وعاودته الذكريات النكر

He said, his soul having closed in on him,

and dreadful memories returning to him:

ربّاه هذا زورقي حائر

معطّل المجداف لا يستقر

O my Lord, here is my boat, bewildered,

its oar disabled, unable to settle.

كأن هذا البحر في جوفه

معربد الأمواج طاغٍ عكر

As though this sea were in its belly,

riotous in its waves, raging and murky.

ظلت رياح الدهر تلهو به

وهو لها مستسلم لم يثر

The winds of time kept toying with it,

while it surrendered to them, never rebelling.

لا يبلغ القاع وإيمانه

بالسطح لا يدفع عنه الخطر

It does not reach the bottom, and its faith

in the surface does not fend danger off.

أرثى لنفسي وله كلّما

شارفت منجاةً هوى وانحدر

I pity myself and it whenever

I draw near safety, it plunges and sinks.

وكلما حنّ إلى شاطىءٍ

صاحت به الأعماق لا تنتظر

And whenever it longs for a shore,

the depths shout at it: 'Do not wait!'

ربّاه هذا أنا في زورقي

عبدك فاصفح إن لساني عثر

O my Lord, here I am in my boat,

Your servant: forgive me if my tongue has stumbled.

أفرغت كأسي من رحيق المنى

فقد وجدت اليأس عين الظفر

I have emptied my cup of the nectar of hopes,

for I have found despair to be victory itself.

كانت لنفسي مثل غيري منى

يتيمة عذراء مثل الدرر

My soul, like others, once had hopes,

orphaned and virginal, like pearls.

أفنيت عمري أتغنى لها

ما تلهم الشمس ويوحى القمر

I spent my life singing to them

what the sun inspires and the moon reveals,

حتى جرى ما أنت أدرى به

استغفر الله وأشكو القدر

until what You know best came to pass—

I seek God's forgiveness and complain of fate.

فعدت والحسرة في أضلعي

محطّمَ العود عيّ الوَتر

So I returned, regret within my ribs,

my lute shattered, its string tongue-tied.

ألتهم اليأس وأحشو به

فم النصيح الفدم إمّا هذر

I devour despair, and with it I stuff

the mouth of the dull-witted adviser if he prattles.

وكلما ساءَلني صاحب

ماذا ترجى في الغد المنتظر

And whenever a friend asks me,

'What do you hope for in the awaited tomorrow?'

أقول ما يرضيك يا خالقي

ويسحق الوهم ويفنى الضجر

I say what pleases You, O my Creator,

and crushes illusion and ends discontent:

الحمد لله على ما قضى

والشكر للَه على ما أمر

Praise be to God for what He has decreed,

and thanks be to God for what He has commanded.