1. يا زائرَ القبرِ الذي

    ملَّ الزيارةَ زائرُهْ

    O visitor to the grave whose

    visitor has grown weary of visiting:

  2. ما إن يحاورُكَ الذي

    فيه فكيفَ تحاورُه

    He does not converse with you—the one

    within it; how, then, can you converse with him?

  3. للهِ قبرٌ حاز با

    طنُه الجمالَ وظاهرُه

    To God belongs a grave whose interior

    and exterior alike hold beauty!

  4. فيه الحجى حُبِسَت أَوا

    ئلُهُ به وأواخِرُه

    Within it, wisdom's beginnings were imprisoned,

    and its endings within it too.

  5. بَدْرٌ غَزَتْهُ من الكس

    فِ جيوشُهُ وعساكرُه

    A full moon, assailed by the eclipse's

    armies and troops.

  6. ما ذلك المقبورُ عبدُ ال

    لهِ لكن قابرُه

    That buried man is not Abd Allah,

    but rather the one who buried him.

  7. مَنْ ذا يفاخر بي الأدي

    بَ إذا أَتاه يفاخره

    Who will vie with the man of letters by boasting of me,

    when he comes to vie in boasting with him?

  8. أَم ذا يكاثر بي الذي

    بالشعرِ جاءَ يُكاثره

    Or who will, through me, rival the one

    who has come to outdo him in abundance of verse?

  9. أَحللتَ بي يا دهرُ ما

    قد كنتُ منكَ أُحاذره

    You have brought upon me, O Time, what

    I had feared from you.

  10. غصنٌ منذ ثَنيْتَهُ

    بالعُنْفِ أَنكَ كاسِرُه

    A branch—since you bent it

    with violence, you are its breaker.