1. إِلى الأَمْنِ يُفْضِي بِالفَتى مَا يُحاذِرُ

    فَلِلْكَلْمِ مِنْ يَأْسُو وَلِلْكَسْرِ جابِرُ

    What a young man fears leads him to safety;

    for a wound has its healer, and a fracture its mender.

  2. وَكَمْ أَنْفُسٍ لَمْ تَنْتَفِعْ بِموارِدٍ

    وَرَوَّى صَداها بَعْدَ يَأْسٍ مَصادِرُ

    And many souls gained nothing at watering places,

    yet departures quenched their thirst after despair.

  3. فَلا تَعْذُلِينا يَا بْنَةَ القَوْمِ إِنَّنا

    بِمَنْزلَةٍ تُمتاحُ مِنْها المَفاقِرُ

    So do not reproach us, daughter of the tribe, for we

    are in a state from which privations are drawn.

  4. وَلَولا انْتِكاسُ الدَّهْرِ زِينَتْ أَسِرَّةٌ

    بِنا حَيْثُ أَلْقَيْنا العَصا وَمَنابِرُ

    But for time's reversal, thrones would have been adorned

    with us wherever we laid down our staff—and pulpits too.

  5. وَنَحْنُ سَراةُ النّاسِ في كُلِّ مَوْطِنٍ

    فَلا تُلْزمينا ما جَنَتْهُ المَقادِرُ

    And we are the foremost of men in every land;

    so do not hold us responsible for what fate has wrought.

  6. وَلَلْفَقْرُ خَيْرٌ مِنْ غِنىً في مَذَلَّةٍ

    إِذا أَخَذَتْ مِنّا الجُدودُ العَواثِرُ

    And poverty is surely better than wealth in humiliation,

    when stumbling fortunes take from us.

  7. وَعاداتُنا أَلّا نَرُومَ سِوى العُلا

    وَأُمُّ المعالي في زَمانِكِ عاقِرُ

    And our custom is to seek nothing but the heights,

    yet the mother of noble deeds is barren in your age.