تعلمْ من الختلِ ما تنقي

تعلمْ من الختلِ ما تنقي

به كيدَ كلِّ فتىً خاتلِ

به كيدَ كلِّ فتىً خاتلِ

Learn from guile how to dispel

Learn from the crafty one what purifies

With it the schemes of every deceitful youth.

you from the deceit of every sly youth.

وخذ لمشيبكَ مكرَ الشبابِ

وخذ لمشيبكَ مكرَ الشبابِ

ومن حادثِ العامِ للقابلِ

ومن حادثِ العامِ للقابلِ

And take youth's cunning into your gray-haired years,

Take for your old age the cunning of youth

And draw from this year's happenings for the next.

and from the events of time, lessons for the future.

وإن كانَ جُلُّ الورى في جنونٍ

وإن كانَ جُلُّ الورى في جنونٍ

فما أنتَ وحدكَ بالعاقلِ

فما أنتَ وحدكَ بالعاقلِ

And if most of humankind are mad,

And if most of creation is in madness,

Then you are not the only sane one.

you alone are not the reasonable one.

فكنْ عالماً عاملاً بينهم

فكنْ عالماً عاملاً بينهم

فهم خدمُ العالمِ العاملِ

فهم خدمُ العالمِ العاملِ

So be a learned man of action among them,

So be, among them, a knowledgeable, working man

For they are servants of the learned man of action.

for they are the servants of the world's worker.