أماته الشعر وهو حي

أماته الشعر وهو حي

حتى اغتدى حسنه جذاذا

حتى اغتدى حسنه جذاذا

Hair—or poetry—killed him while he yet lived,

Hair killed him while he was still alive,

until his beauty and excellence became fragments.

Until his beauty was reduced to fragments.

فصار لا يرتجى لأمر

فصار لا يرتجى لأمر

وكان في الحسن لا يحاذى

وكان في الحسن لا يحاذى

So he became one no longer looked to in any affair,

So nothing could be hoped of him for any purpose,

though once, in beauty and excellence, he had no peer.

Though in beauty he had been beyond compare.

يقول كل امرئ يراه

يقول كل امرئ يراه

يا ليتني مت قبل هذا

يا ليتني مت قبل هذا

Everyone who sees him says,

Everyone who sees him says,

“Would that I had died before this!”

Oh, if only I had died before this!