1. ماض على غلوائه يجري

    أبداً إلى بحر بلا عبر

    Onward it runs in its headlong fury,

    Forever toward a shoreless sea.

  2. مترقرق لا شيء يحسبه

    متزاحم كتزاحم الشعر

    Rippling, nothing can reckon it,

    Jostling like the jostling of verse;

  3. متضاحك سلس وآونة

    متوثب عن نزوة الشر

    Laughing, flowing smoothly, and at times

    Leaping from a sudden impulse of evil.

  4. زجل له لحن يذكرنا

    همس المنى في رونق العمر

    Resounding, it has a melody that recalls to us

    The whisper of hopes in life's bloom;

  5. ومزمجر طوراً كأن له

    رعد الجحيم تثور بالجمر

    And at times roaring, as though it had

    The thunder of Hell as it erupts with embers.

  6. كم قد أقل عبابه سفناً

    وأجن من غرقى ومن كسر

    How many ships its surge has borne,

    And entombed drowned bodies and broken wreckage,

  7. ورمى بكل غير متئد

    في قعر بحر هائل القعر

    And hurled them all, without delay,

    Into the depths of a fearsomely deep sea.

  8. سيظل هذا النهر منجرداً

    يهوى براكبه إلى البحر

    This river will keep rushing onward,

    Plunging with its rider toward the sea,

  9. حتى يمل الدهر دورته

    وتنام عين الشمس والبدر

    Until Time tires of its cycle,

    And the eye of the sun and the full moon sleeps.

  10. ويلي عليه وويل راكبه

    منه ومن بحر الردى القفر

    Woe to me for it, and woe to its rider,

    From it and from the desolate sea of death.