1. أيَحسَبُ دَهريَ أنّي جَزِعتُ

    لِما غال من نَشَبيَ وانْتَهَبْ

    Does my fate think that I have lost heart

    over the wealth of mine it ravaged and plundered?

  2. فقد أخلَصَتْنِيَ أحداثُه

    وبالنّارِ يَبدو خَلاصُ الذّهبْ

    For its calamities have refined me,

    and fire reveals the purity of gold.

  3. وما حَطّني أخذُهُ ما استَعادَ

    ولا زادَني رِفعةً ما وَهبْ

    What it took back has not brought me low,

    nor has what it bestowed increased my stature.

  4. وما أنا إلاّ كضوءِ الشّهابِ

    إذا نكَّسوهُ اعْتَلى والتَهَبْ

    I am but like the light of a torch:

    when they turn it upside down, it rises and blazes.