1. رَضيتَ لِنَفسِكَ سَوءاتِها

    وَلَم تَألُ حُبّاً لِمَرضاتِها

    You have accepted your soul's shameful deeds,

    And spared no effort, out of love, to please it.

  2. وَحَسَّنتَ أَقبَحَ أَعمالِها

    وَصَغَّرتَ أَكبَرَ زَلّاتِها

    And made its ugliest deeds seem good,

    And made light of its gravest lapses.

  3. وَكَم مِن سَبيلِ لِأَهلِ الصِبا

    سَلَكتَ بِهِم في بُنَيّاتِها

    And how many a path for the young

    Have you walked with them along its byways!

  4. وَأَيُّ الدَواعي دَواعي الهَوى

    تَطَلَّعتَ عَنها لِآفاتِها

    And which promptings—the promptings of desire—

    Have you looked away from because of their dangers?

  5. وَأَيُّ المَحارِمِ لَم تَنتَهِك

    وَأَيُّ الفَضائِحِ لَم تاتِها

    And which sacred prohibitions have you not violated?

    And which disgraceful deeds have you not committed?

  6. كَأَنّي بِنَفسِكَ قَد عوجِلَت

    عَلى ذاكَ في بَعضِ غِرّاتِها

    I seem to see your soul already seized without warning,

    In that state, in one of its heedless moments,

  7. وَقامَت نَوادِبُها حُسَّراً

    تَداعى بِرَنَّةِ أَصواتِها

    And its mourning women have risen bareheaded,

    Calling to one another with the wail of their voices.

  8. أَلَم تَرَ أَنَّ دَبيبَ اللَيالي

    يُسارِقُ نَفسَكَ ساعاتِها

    Do you not see that the creeping of the nights

    Furtively robs your soul of its hours?

  9. وَهَذي القِيامَةُ قَد أَشرَفَت

    عَلى العالَمينَ لِميقاتِها

    And this Resurrection is already looming

    Over all the worlds, at its appointed time.

  10. وَقَد أَقبَلَت بِمَوازينِها

    وَأَهوالِها وَبِرَوعاتِها

    And it has come bearing its scales,

    And its terrors and its horrors.

  11. وَإِنّا لَفي بَعضِ أَشراطِها

    وَأَيّامِها وَعَلاماتِها

    And we are surely amid some of its portents,

    And its days and its signs.

  12. رَكَنّا إِلى الدارِ دارِ الغُرو

    رِ إِذ سَحَرَتنا بِلَذّاتِها

    We have trusted in the abode, the abode of delu—

    —sion, when it bewitched us with its pleasures.

  13. فَما نَرعَوي لَأَعاجيبِها

    وَلا لِتَصَرُّفِ حالاتِها

    So we take no heed of its wonders,

    Nor of its shifting fortunes.

  14. نُنافِسُ فيها وَأَيّامُنا

    تَرَدَّدُ فينا بِآفاتِها

    We compete within it, while our days

    Come and go among us with their afflictions.

  15. وَما يَتَفَكَّرُ أَحياؤُها

    فَيَعتَبِرونَ بِأَمواتِها

    And its living do not reflect

    So as to take warning from its dead.