أراك يا زمني شططا

أراك يا زمني شططا

وفي الهدية تطوي الدخن والحمطا

وفي الهدية تطوي الدخن والحمطا

I find you, O my time, unjust beyond measure.

I see you, oh my time, deviating,

And within the gift you enfold smoke and wild figs.

And in virtue you fold smoke and mist.

سألتك القسط مذ أَوليتني فأبت

سألتك القسط مذ أَوليتني فأبت

أحكام شرعك إلا الجور والقسطا

أحكام شرعك إلا الجور والقسطا

I asked you for justice since you favored me, but

I asked you for my share when you supported me but you refused.

Your law's decrees would allow only oppression and injustice.

The laws of your creed are only tyranny and division.

أكشفت عني غطاء الصبر من حزن

أكشفت عني غطاء الصبر من حزن

والحزن يكشف عن ذي الصبر كل غطا

والحزن يكشف عن ذي الصبر كل غطا

Have you stripped from me the veil of patience through grief?

Grief has uncovered the cloak of patience from me,

And grief strips every veil from one who bears patiently.

And grief uncovers the patient one of every cloak.

مذ فاتني فرط قد كان لي أمل

مذ فاتني فرط قد كان لي أمل

فيه فلا أمل في فائت فرطا

فيه فلا أمل في فائت فرطا

Since I lost one gone before me—I had once placed hope

Since the excess I had hope in passed me by,

In him—there is no hope in one lost, gone ahead.

There is no hope in an excess that has passed.

ووطأة الموت عمداً ما بها خطل

ووطأة الموت عمداً ما بها خطل

رضى به حيث ما عمدا عليّ وطا

رضى به حيث ما عمدا عليّ وطا

And death's tread is deliberate; there is no error in it.

The burden of death deliberately has no error,

Acceptance of it, wherever it deliberately trod upon me.

Content with it wherever deliberately it comes upon me.

رضى ولا جزعا مني ولا هلعا

رضى ولا جزعا مني ولا هلعا

من حيث سهم الردى أصمى وليس خطا

من حيث سهم الردى أصمى وليس خطا

Acceptance, with neither anguish nor panic from me,

Content without despair from me or fright,

For death's arrow killed outright; it was no mistake.

From where the arrow of fate strikes me deaf and it is no mistake.