بَـــــــانَ أَمْسِي كلحْـــــــــــــظَــةٍ تَتبَسَّــــــــــــمْ
كسَــرابٍ وتَـــــــــــــــــــــــارة تَتَــــــــجَــــــهَّـمْ
My yesterday departed like a smiling moment,
like a mirage, and at times it scowls.
شَــاهِدِي يَوْمِـــي بِانْطِواءٍ لِاَمْســـــــــيِ
وَغَدِي غَيْـــــبٌ بالـمُــنَـى يَتَقَــــــــــــــــــدَّمْ
My day is my witness as my yesterday folds away,
and my tomorrow, unseen, advances with hopes.
فِطْرَة اللهِ في الخلائــق جَمْعًـــــــــــــــــــا
فِي مَدَارٍ عَلَى الزَّمَـــــــــــــــــانِ يُــــقَـــــــــوَّمْ
God's natural design in all creatures
is gauged, in a cycle, against time,
مِنْ رَحِيلٍ إلَى رَحيـــــــــــلٍ وَعُمْــــــــــرِي
بــالْـمَحَطَّــاتِ وَقْـعُ حَيٍّ يُـــــــقَسَّـــــــــــــمْ
from departure to departure; and my lifetime—
a living being's footfall—is divided among stations.
شطُّ بَحْـرِي عـــَلَى سَوَاحِلِ دَهْـــرِي
في انبِسَـــاطٍ على بساطِـــــي يُـــقلَّــمْ
My sea's shore, along the coasts of my lifetime,
spreading over my carpet, is trimmed back,
في انسحابٍ مِثْل السَّحَـاب وشَمْسِي
في فضائي مِثْل النجُوم تبسَّــــمْ
receding like the clouds; and my sun
in my sky, smiled like the stars.
واستَـــمَرَّتْ بِنَـــــــــــا الحيَــــــاةُ رَحــــيــــلاً
واسْتَقَـــــــــــــرَّتْ بِذِكْرَيَـــــاتٍ تُرَسَّـــــــــــمْ
And life went on with us as a journey,
and settled into memories that are traced.
:
قُلْتُ :نَفْسِي بالاسْتِقَـامَةِ سِيِرِي
واسْتَعِيذِي مِنَ المَهَالِكِ أسْلَــــــــــمْ
I said, "My soul, walk in uprightness,
and seek refuge from deadly perils—it is safer."
لَيْسَ يَـعْـــــنِي الإنسَــانُ تَخْلِيدُ ذِكْـرٍ
دُونَ سَعْيٍ أجْرَاهُ حَتَّـــــــى يُعَمَّـــــــمْ
Perpetuating remembrance means nothing to a person
without effort he has undertaken so that it may be spread widely.
وَيْح عَبْدٍ فِي غَــيِّـــــــهِ يَتَـــقَــــــــــــــــــــــــدَّمْ
مُسْتَلِـــذٍّ فِي غَفْــــلَـــةٍ تَـتـــــــــــــــــــــــــــأزَّمْ
Alas for a servant advancing in his waywardness,
taking pleasure in heedlessness that worsens.
!
ما سَيُسْلِـيهِ لَـــــوْ يُعَمِّــــــرُ دَهْــــــــــرًا !
إن تـــوارَى تَحْـتَ التُّـرَابِ مُحَطَّـــــمْ
What will console him, even if he lives for an age,
if he vanishes beneath the dust, shattered?
كُلُّ حَيٍّ إلَى الفَــــنـــــــَاءِ ورَبِّــــــــــــــــــــــي
كَلُّ حَــــــيٍّ إلى الرَّحِيلِ المـُحـَتَّـــــــــمْ
Every living being is bound to perish, by my Lord;
every living being is bound for the inevitable departure.
رَبِّ سَــلِّــمْ روحي فَأنْتَ مــــــــلاذِي
يَوْمَ تُطْوَى صَحِيفَــــتِي وَ تُسَــــــلَّمْ
My Lord, keep my soul safe, for You are my refuge,
on the day my scroll is folded and handed over,
يَوْمَ عَرْضِ الحِسَابِ والخلْقُ صَفَّا
،
مَنْ تُـــرَاهُ يُـــــهَــــانُ ، مَنْ سَـيُكَـــــــرَّمْ
on the day the reckoning is presented and creation stands in a row:
Who, do you suppose, will be humiliated; who will be honored?
Sol 6.1