1. أدركتُ حظي في شتاء حياتي

    كالصبح منبلجاً من الظلماتِ

    I found my fortune in the winter of my life,

    Like dawn breaking forth from darkness.

  2. فرجعت من عمري إلى شرخ الصبا

    ونبذت زهدي وازدريت حصاتي

    So I returned from my years to the prime of youth,

    And cast aside my renunciation and scorned my prudence.

  3. ووقفت من لبنان بين ظبائه

    صباً اسائلهن أين مهاتي

    And I stood in Lebanon among its gazelles,

    Lovesick, asking them: Where is my oryx?

  4. خلفتها يوم الوداع شجية

    وسلخت عن قبلاتنا قبلاتي

    I left her sorrowful on the day of farewell,

    And stripped my kisses away from our kisses.

  5. ولزمت آداب المشيب وضيمها

    متنكراً لصبابتي بأناتي

    And kept to the decorum of gray hair and its indignities,

    Disowning my longing through my composure,

  6. متحامياً شكوى البوارح مانعاً

    مكنون وجدي ان يجوز لهاتي

    Avoiding complaints of torment, keeping

    My hidden passion from passing my throat.

  7. والنجم ينظر دمع عيني وحده

    ولليل يسمع وحده أناتي

    And the star alone watches the tears in my eye,

    And the night alone hears my groans.

  8. ما كنت أحسب أن أعود وللمنى

    نشواتها واعيش بعد مماتي

    I never thought I would return, with hopes

    Still full of rapture, and live after my death.

  9. اما الألى ردوا علي حشاشتي

    فحياتهم مفديةٌ بحياتي

    As for those who gave me back my spark of life,

    Their lives are ransomed with my life.

  10. عطفوا علي وعظموا قدري وما

    أنا غير عبدهم وهم ساداتي

    They were kind to me and exalted my standing; and

    I am nothing but their slave, and they are my masters.

  11. لولاهم لاستأسد الباغي على

    شأني وغل يدي دهري العاتي

    Without them, the oppressor would have acted the lion against

    My standing, and my ruthless age would have shackled my hand.

  12. دهرٌ يغير على الأديب فما أرى

    من ركبه نحوي سوى الآفات

    An age that raids the man of letters; I see nothing

    In its troop coming toward me but calamities.

  13. وجريرتي أني لبست حياله

    درعاً تقي صدري من الطعنات

    And my offense is that, confronting it, I donned

    Armor that protects my chest from thrusts.

  14. واللَه يعلم أنني لم أبتذل

    أدبي الأبي ولا أهنتُ هناتي

    And God knows that I have not cheapened

    My unbowed art, nor belittled my trifles.

  15. قطعت أيام الشباب وشرعتي

    بين الموارد شرعة الحسنات

    I passed the days of youth, and my creed

    Among the wellsprings was the creed of good deeds.

  16. وحفظت عهد أحبتي متنكباً

    في حب قومي عن محبة ذاتي

    And I kept faith with my loved ones, turning away,

    In love for my people, from love of myself.

  17. ولزمت لبنان المفدى وقت لم

    يلزمه في بلواه غير فداة

    And I stood by Lebanon, worthy of sacrifice, when none

    Stood by it in its ordeal but its self-sacrificing defenders.

  18. إن لم تكن لي في الكريهة نارها

    فقريحتي قذافةُ الجمرات

    If I had none of its fire in battle,

    My poetic gift was a hurler of embers.

  19. أو لم تكن لي قوسها وسهامها

    أوترت ذهني بارياً كلماتي

    Or if I lacked its bow and arrows,

    I strung my mind, whittling my words.

  20. الثلج من لبنان شاطئ خاطري

    والأرز منه مجتلى آياتي

    Lebanon's snow is the shore of my thought,

    And its cedars the place where my verses are unveiled.

  21. اجلو عليه بنات فكري حرةً

    فتروحُ قيد هواه كالآمات

    Upon it I unveil the daughters of my thought, free,

    And they go forth, bound by love of it, like slave women.

  22. يقتادها مثل السبايا العانيا

    ت له وهن على سواه عوات

    It leads them like captive women, bound

    To it, though they are rebellious toward all others.

  23. تلك العرائس ما لبسن من الحلى

    إلا مصوغ رياضه النضرات

    Those brides have worn no adornments

    Except what its verdant gardens have wrought.

  24. تغدو وتمسي في مشارف أرزه

    كالحور مشرفةً من الجنات

    They pass morning and evening on the heights of its cedars,

    Like houris gazing down from the gardens of Paradise.

  25. والبرق دون جبينها ومناكب الأقمار

    دون مواطئ الخطوات

    Lightning is below their brow, and the shoulders of the moons

    Are below the places where their footsteps fall.

  26. قسماً بها وهي القوافي ان حلف

    ت بها أبر كمقسم باللات

    I swear by them—they are the rhymes! If I swear

    By them, I keep my oath, like one swearing by al-Lāt.

  27. لو لم يكن لبنان بعد اللَه مع

    بودي لما كان القريض صلاتي

    If Lebanon, after God, were not my object of

    Worship, poetry would not be my prayer.

  28. وإذا شكوت فانني شاكٍ إلى

    لبنان ما ضيعت من نفثاتي

    And when I complain, I complain to

    Lebanon of the breaths of verse I have squandered.

  29. الشعر في غير الأديب خسارة

    مثل اللجين يذابُ في الدمنات

    Poetry spent on anyone but a man of letters is a loss,

    Like silver melted in dung heaps.

  30. اني خبرت بني الزمان فلم أجد

    إلا الأديب على البلاء يؤاتي

    I have tested the sons of the age, and found none

    But the man of letters ready to help in affliction.

  31. يشقى ليسعد شاقياً ويبيحه

    روحاً تعيد الروح للأموات

    He suffers to gladden a sufferer, and grants him

    A spirit that restores life to the dead.

  32. روحٌ تسيل على اليراعة كلما

    سال المدادُ بها على الصفحات

    A spirit that flows along the reed pen whenever

    Ink flows through it onto the pages;

  33. روحٌ تطل على الدجان كأنها

    فلق الصباح يمزق الدجنات

    A spirit that looks out over deep darkness, as though it were

    Daybreak, tearing the dark clouds apart.

  34. هي قوةٌ سحريةٌ حصرت زما

    م الكونِ بين يراعة ودواةِ

    It is a magical power that has confined the

    Rein of the universe between a reed pen and an inkwell.

  35. صالت على دول البغاة فقوضت

    أركانها ومشت على الهامات

    It charged the tyrants' realms and overthrew

    Their pillars, and trod upon their heads.

  36. أفدي بروحي معشراً من قومها

    سروا أساي وبردوا زفراتي

    With my soul I would ransom a company of its people,

    Who dispelled my grief and cooled my sighs.

  37. هم أهل ودي لا عدوت ظلالهم

    فظلالهم للخير ست جهات

    They are my beloved friends; may I never leave their shade,

    For their shade shelters goodness in all six directions.

  38. لولا طوالعهم لما واجهت في

    لبنان غير طلائع النكبات

    Without their rising stars, I would have faced in

    Lebanon nothing but the vanguards of calamity;

  39. ولما تلقى مسمعي من رجعه

    إلا أنين نوادب ونعاة

    And my ear would have received from its echo

    Only the moans of mourning women and bearers of death tidings;

  40. ولما وردت السلسبيل من الصفا

    والطيباتُ ذواهبٌ وأوات

    Nor would I have come to the Salsabīl of pure affection,

    While good things depart and return.

  41. يا أخوةً سبغت علي دروعهم

    وبهم وجدت مهندي وقناتي

    O brothers whose armor has fully sheltered me,

    And through whom I found my Indian blade and spear,

  42. أحيت عوارفكم بي الأمل الذي

    ودعته ونظرت فيه رفاتي

    Your kindnesses revived in me the hope that

    I had said farewell to, seeing my own remains within it.

  43. أدركتموني والطريق كثيرة

    عقباتها فأقلتم عثراتي

    You came to my aid when the road had many

    Obstacles; so you lifted me from my stumbles.

  44. ولممتم الشمل الشتيت من المنى

    فهفت إليَّ مناي بعد شتات

    And you gathered the scattered company of my hopes,

    So my hopes fluttered toward me after their dispersal.

  45. وغدرت لا اجد الحياة مصيبةً

    ورجعت أحمدُ يقظتي وسباتي

    And I came to find life no calamity [reading وغدوت for وغدرت],

    And again I praised my waking and my sleep.

  46. من كان اخوته الأسود فانه

    لا يرهب السرحان في الفلوات

    Whoever has lions for brothers

    Does not fear the wolf in the wilderness.

  47. شكري لكم شكر الوفيِّ لذي يدٍ

    ردت عليه الروح بعد وفات

    My thanks to you are a loyal man's thanks to one whose hand

    Gave him back his spirit after death.