قد قلت حقا فلم تقبله أذهان

وحاربتك سياسات وأديان

You spoke the truth, but minds would not accept it.

And politics and religions waged war against you.

فأنت من بعد إنكار الجميع له

شهرته فهو مثل السيف عريان

Yet you, after everyone had denied it,

brandished it, and it stood bare like a sword.

وكنت انت البصير الفرد يومئذ

وحولك الناس كل الناس عميان

And you alone were clear-sighted then,

while the people around you—all the people—were blind.

نم في ضريحك في امن وفي ودعة

فما هنالك احقاد وأضغان

Sleep in your tomb in safety and repose;

for there are no hatreds or grudges there.

لا يزعج المرء ضوضاء الحياة به

ولا يجور على الانسان انسان

Life's clamor does not disturb a person there,

nor does one person wrong another.

أزال شكك في كون الحياة اذا

بانت فليس لها عود ورجعان

Has your doubt ended over whether life, once

gone, has no return or coming back?

ام انت توقن ان الناس ان هلكوا

فسوف يحيون في يوم كما كانوا

Or are you certain that people, if they perish,

will one day live again as they once were?

بل تلك رقدة ميت لا انتباه له

الا اذا انكصت في الدور اكوان

Rather, that is a dead man's sleep, with no awakening,

unless universes are turned backward in their cycles.

شدوت بالشعر للاجيال تطربهم

بسحره قادرا والسحر الحان

You sang in verse to generations, delighting them

with its magic, masterfully—and magic is melody.

الفاظه ومعانيه تمازجتا

كما تمازج ارواح وابدان

Its words and meanings blended together

as souls and bodies intermingle.

قصائد ومقاطيع مخلدة

سارت بها في فضاء الارض ركبان

Immortal odes and shorter poems,

borne by riders across the earth's expanse.

فيها الحقائق مبثوث فرائدها

كأنها لؤلؤ رطب ومرجان

In them lie scattered the rare gems of truth,

as though they were fresh pearls and coral.

الشعر اسمعه كالسحر ابصره

كلاهما لي اذا ما جد فتان

The poetry I hear is like the magic I behold:

both enchant me whenever they are fresh.

وقد ارى ثلة بالشعر لاغية

ما في قصائدها روح واتقان

And sometimes I see a band babbling in verse,

with neither spirit nor craftsmanship in its poems.

كأن فيها المعاني من برودتها

موتى عليها من الالفاظ اكفان

As though the meanings in them, from their coldness,

were corpses with shrouds of words laid over them.

وان اكبر شيء فيك يعجبني

سخرية بتقاليد وعصيان

And what I admire most in you

is your mockery of traditions and your defiance.

بعد العمى وهو سجن لا خصاص له

يزيد وحشته للنور فقدان

After blindness—a prison without a single chink,

whose desolation the loss of light makes deeper—

تخذت بيتك سجنا ثانيا فغدا

وانت فيه سجين ثم سجان

you made your home a second prison, and so it was,

with you inside it a prisoner, then a jailer.

ةانكروا فيك الحادا وزندقة

وعل ما انكروه فيك بهتان

And they condemned you for atheism and heresy,

and perhaps their accusations against you were slander.

اما ضياعك والارزاء قاسية

ففيه للشرق كل الشرق خسران

As for your loss—and calamities are cruel—

it is a loss to the East, to the entire East.

الشرق ما زال يحبو وهو مغتمض

والغرب يركض وثبا وهو يقضان

The East still crawls, its eyes closed,

while the West runs in leaps, wide awake.

والغرب ابناؤه بالعلم قد سعدوا

والشرق اهلوه في جهل كما كانوا

And the West's sons have prospered through knowledge,

while the East's people remain in ignorance as before.

الغرب يشغله مال ومتربة

والشرق يشغله كفر وايمان

The West is preoccupied with wealth and poverty,

and the East is preoccupied with unbelief and faith.

الغرب عز بنوه اينما نزلوا

والشرق الا قليلا اهله هانوا

The West's sons are honored wherever they settle,

while the East's people, save a few, are abased.

الطائرات وتلكم من مراكبهم

كأنها في عنان الجو عقبان

Airplanes—and those are among their vehicles—

are like eagles in the heights of the sky.

اما مراكبنا في كل مرحلة

فانها ليعافير وبعران

As for our vehicles, at every stage,

they are indeed donkeys and camels.

اني تلمذت في بيتي عليك وان

ابلت عظامك ازمان وازمان

I studied under you in my home, although

ages and ages have worn your bones away.

اصابني في زماني ما اصابك من

حيف فما رد هذا الحيف انسان

In my time, what befell you befell me:

injustice—and no one repelled this injustice.

نظمت فيك على عجز اقربه

قصيدة حشوها بث واشجان

I composed in your honor, despite my confessed inadequacy,

a poem filled with lament and sorrows.

فان اجدت فمن جدواك جودته

وان اسأت فكم قد خاب فنان

So if I have done well, its excellence comes from your bounty;

and if I have done poorly—how many an artist has failed!

اني لفي بلد فيه النفاق طغى

وحبذا لو بدا في الجهد طغيان

I am indeed in a land where hypocrisy runs rampant;

and would that effort showed such excess!

وحبذا النقد لو راعوا قواعد

فانه وحده للحكم ميزان

And how fine criticism would be, if they observed its rules,

for it alone is the scale for judgment.