يقولون قد كُنَّا وكان زمانُنا

يقولون قد كُنَّا وكان زمانُنا

ولم ندرِ إِلاَّ ما نرى منهمُ الآنا

ولم ندرِ إِلاَّ ما نرى منهمُ الآنا

They say, “We once were, and so was our age.”

They say we were and our time was,

Yet we have known only what we see of them now.

And we knew nothing but what we now see in them.

فقلتُ وقد كان الخراءُ حلاوةً

فقلتُ وقد كان الخراءُ حلاوةً

فقومُوا كُلُوا مِنْه عَلى أَنَّه كَانَا

فقومُوا كُلُوا مِنْه عَلى أَنَّه كَانَا

So I said, “Shit was indeed once a sweet treat—

So I said, though the fresh herbage was sweetness itself,

so get up and eat some of it, on the grounds that it once was!”

Get up and eat of it as if it had been.