تَمُرُّ لِداتي واحِداً بَعدَ واحِدِ
وَأَعلَمُ أَنّي بَعدَهُم غَيرُ خالِدِ
My peers pass away, one after another,
My contemporaries pass away, one after another;
and I know that after them I shall not live forever.
And I know that after them I shall not live forever.
وَأَحمِلُ مَوتاهُم وَأَشهَدُ دَفنَهُم
كَأَنّي بَعيدٌ مِنهُمُ غَيرُ شاهِدِ
I carry their dead and witness their burial,
And I carry their dead and witness their burial,
as though I were far from them, no witness at all.
As though I were far from them, not a witness.
فَها أَنا في عِلمي بِهِم وَجَهالَتي
كَمُستَيقِظٍ يَرنو بِمُقلَةِ راقِدِ
Yet here I am, knowing their fate and still heedless,
So here I am, in my knowledge of them and my ignorance,
like one awake, gazing through a sleeper’s eye.
Like one awake who gazes with a sleeper's eye.
Sol 6.1