1. أَرى المَوتَ لي حَيثُ اعتَمَدتُ كَمينا

    فَأَصبَحتُ مَهموماً هُناكَ حَزينا

    I see death lying in ambush for me wherever I turn.

    So I became careworn there, sorrowful.

  2. سَيُلحِقُني حادي المَنايا بِمَن مَضى

    أَخَذتُ شِمالاً أَو أَخَذتُ يَمينا

    The camel-driver of deaths will bring me to those who have passed on,

    Whether I turn left or turn right.

  3. يَقينُ الفَتى بِالمَوتِ شَكٌّ وَشَكُّهُ

    يَقينٌ وَلَكِن لا يَراهُ يَقينا

    A young man's certainty about death is doubt, and his doubt

    Is certainty, yet he does not see it as certainty.

  4. عَلَينا عُيونٌ لِلمُنونِ خَفِيَّةٌ

    تَدِبُّ دَبيباً بِالمَنِيَّةِ فينا

    Death's hidden eyes are upon us,

    They creep slowly among us, bearing death.

  5. وَما زالَتِ الدُنيا تُقَلِّبُ أَهلَها

    فَتَجعَلُ ذا غَثّا وَذاكَ سَمينا

    And the world has never ceased to turn its people about,

    So it makes this one lean and that one fat.