1. يا صاحِ هلْ من شاعرٍ أسْرَى بِنا

    فوقَ احتمالِ الغَيْبِ أو ما لا يُرى!

    O friend, has any poet taken us by night

    beyond what the unseen—or what cannot be seen—can bear?

  2. خَدعوكَ إذْ صارَ الخيالُ حقيقةً

    إنّ السّرابَ إذا دَنوْتَ تَأخّرا

    They deceived you when imagination became reality.

    Indeed, the mirage recedes when you draw near.

  3. يا صاحِ كمْ في الوهم من قتلى وكمْ

    نَطَقتْ قَصائدُنا بقولٍ زُوِّرا؟

    O friend, how many lie slain in illusion, and how often

    have our poems spoken words that were forged?

  4. ما الشِّعرُ إلا شَكلُنا في مائهِ

    هلْ تَعكس المرآةُ إلّا ما تَرى؟

    Poetry is nothing but our likeness in its water.

    Does the mirror reflect anything but what it sees?

  5. فاحفظْ لسانَكَ إنْ تجلَّتْ خَيْلُهُ

    كيْ لا تمَيدَ الخيلُ أوْ تَـتعثَّرا

    So guard your tongue if its horses appear,

    lest the horses sway or stumble.

  6. كَذِبٌ عُيونُ الشّعرِ، لَحْظُ سِهامِها

    أبليْنَ قيـْسًا، والسُّليْكَ، وعَنْترا

    Poetry's eyes are lies; the gaze of their arrows

    wore down Qays, al-Sulayk, and Antarah.

  7. ما نحنُ في سَطْرِ الخَطابةِ أهلُها

    لنكونَ في صدرِ المطايا شَنفَرى

    We are not masters of the line of oratory,

    that we might be Shanfara at the head of the mounts.

  8. الشّعرُ سحْرٌ، والعَرافَةُ حَرْفُهُ

    إنْ أقبلتْ عينُ الحقيقةِ أدبـَراْ

    Poetry is magic, and divination its letter;

    if the eye of truth approaches, it retreats.

  9. وأنا عَصا موسى أشُقُّ بُحورَهُ

    يا ويلَ شِعْري كمْ غَرقْتُ وأبْحَرا!

    And I am Moses' staff: I part its seas.

    Woe to my poetry! How often I drowned while it sailed!

  10. ما سُقْتُ يومًا زهوَ شِعْري مُكْرَهًا

    كيْ لا يكونَ الشّعرُ قولًا مُنْكَرا

    I never drove the pride of my poetry under compulsion,

    so that poetry would not become a reprehensible utterance.

  11. أجريتُ دمعَ العاذلينَ ترفُّعًا

    عنْ كلِّ حرفٍ في مثالبِهمْ سَرَى

    I made my reproachers' tears flow, rising above

    every letter that crept through their failings.

  12. لم أهجُ يومًا مِنْ تأبـَّطَ سيرَتيْ

    وهَجوتُ مَنْ باعَ البلادَ وأجَّرَا

    I never satirized anyone who carried my life story under his arm,

    but I satirized whoever sold the country and leased it out.

  13. فَسمعْتُ هَمْسَ عَواذلٍ في حيِّنا

    يَسألْنَ: هلْ أعمى يُنازلُ مُبْصِرا!

    So I heard reproachful women's whispers in our neighborhood,

    asking: “Does a blind man duel with a sighted man?”

  14. أودَعْتُ صَدْرَ الغيْمِ مِلْحَ قصائديْ

    فَهَمَتْ على صدْرِ القَوافي سُكَّرا

    I entrusted the breast of the clouds with the salt of my poems,

    so they rained sugar on the breast of the rhymes.

  15. فاضتْ بهِ الأحداقُ حتى أنَّها

    مِنْ فرْطِ جوعِ العينِ سالتْ أنهُرا

    The eyes overflowed with it, until they

    flowed as rivers from the eye's overwhelming hunger.

  16. ناظرتُ في «الأرضِ اليَبابِ» قصيدتي

    غيضَ الكلامُ وما استَوَيْتُ على الثَرى

    I debated with my poem in “The Waste Land”;

    speech was drained away, and I did not come to rest on the earth.

  17. فرَحَلْتُ عنّي، نحوَ ظنّي مُرغَمًا

    لأرُدَّ جَمْعًا قدْ تقَوَّلَ وافتَرى

    So I departed from myself toward my conjecture, compelled,

    to answer a crowd that had fabricated words and slandered.

  18. يا راحلينَ إلى الكلامِ تمهَّلوا

    لا مركبٌ في اليمِّ يمشي للوَرا

    O travelers toward speech, take your time;

    no vessel on the sea moves backward.

  19. هيَ رحلةُ السَّهم المفارقِ قوسَهُ

    ما عادَ يومًا مُخْبِرًا عمَّا جَرى

    It is the journey of the arrow leaving its bow;

    it has never returned to tell what happened.

  20. فـ «اذهبْ إليكَ» ورُدَّها عن غَيِّها

    واهْجُرْ سبيلَ اللَّغوِ حتَّى تُعذَرا

    So “go to yourself,” and turn it back from its waywardness,

    and abandon the path of idle talk so that you may be excused.