Sol 6.1

  1. على عاتقيه رزايا الدهور

    فلا تعجبن لظهر حُنى

    Upon his shoulders lie the calamities of the ages.

    So do not marvel at a bent back.

  2. رزايا أزالت نضارة وجهٍ

    فلا يُستفَزُّ ولا ينثنى

    Calamities have robbed a face of its bloom,

    so he is neither stirred nor swayed.

  3. فأين السرور وأين الرجاء

    وكل بهيج ومستحسن

    Where, then, are joy and hope,

    and everything delightful and pleasing?

  4. وأين الهموم وأين الغموم

    وكل شعور بها قد فنى

    And where are cares and sorrows,

    when all feeling for them has died away?

  5. فمن دسَّ فيه سموم الخمول

    وأطفأ منه الضياء السنى

    Who, then, slipped into him the poisons of torpor

    and quenched the radiant light within him?

  6. أهذا براه إله البرايا

    ومن قاس ذا الكون شبراً فشبرا

    Is this the one the God of creation fashioned,

    and who measured this universe, span by span?

  7. أهذا خلاصة كلّ الوجو

    د عميد الخلائق برّاً وبحرا

    Is this the essence of all existence,

    the chief of creatures on land and sea,

  8. إمام النجوم ومحصى النجو

    م وجالى الغوامض بطناً وظهرا

    leader of the stars and counter of the stars,

    and revealer of mysteries, inside and out?

  9. أهذا عناه إله السما

    ء أهذا قضاه فأحكم أمرَا

    Is this what the God of heaven intended?

    Did He decree this and settle the matter firmly?

  10. بوجه كئيبٍ وظهرٍ حديبٍ

    وعقلٍ عقيمٍ ورأىٍ سقيم

    With a gloomy face and a hunched back,

    a barren mind and unsound judgment,

  11. خلاصة ظلم وزبدة غرم

    وعنوان كلّ وضيعٍ أثيم

    the essence of oppression, the quintessence of loss,

    and the emblem of every base sinner.

  12. ولكن في الصخر ناراً وفيه

    بوادر شرٍّ وهمٍّ مقيم

    But there is fire in stone, and in him

    stirrings of evil and abiding anxiety.

  13. ولا بدَّ للنار ما تلتظى

    وللشرُّ عقبى لكلّ ظلوم

    And fire is bound to blaze,

    and evil has consequences for every tyrant.

  14. فأين الملائك منه وقد صا

    ر عبداً لرفشٍ وعبداً لفاس

    How far from him are the angels, now that he has become

    a slave to a shovel and a slave to an axe?

  15. وأين العلوم وأين الفنو

    ن مبادى الحساب وحكم القياس

    And where are the sciences, and where the arts,

    the rudiments of arithmetic and the rules of inference,

  16. جمال الرياض وظلّ الغياض

    وسجع الطيور وحبّ الأناس

    the beauty of gardens and the shade of groves,

    the birds' song and the love of humankind?

  17. عصورُ المظالم فيه تجلَّت

    وقد شاب فوداه ممَّا يقاسى

    In him the ages of oppression stand revealed,

    and both his temples have grayed from what he endures.

  18. عظام من الظلم لانت فأضّت

    جموع من الجور باتت تنادى

    Bones grew soft under oppression, then groaned;

    multitudes, driven by tyranny, spend the night calling:

  19. ملوك الأنام قضاة الزمان

    بماذا تجيبون يوم المعاد

    O kings of humankind, judges of the age,

    what will you answer on the Day of Resurrection?

  20. أهذا وديعة ربّ السما

    ء يبيتُ على مثل شوك القتاد

    Is this the charge entrusted by the Lord of heaven,

    spending his nights as though upon tragacanth thorns,

  21. بجسمٍ ضئيلٍ ووجهٍ كئيبٍ

    رفيق الوحوش حليف السهاد

    with a frail body and a gloomy face,

    a companion of wild beasts, an ally of sleeplessness?

  22. بماذا يقوَّم ظهر حناه

    بماذا تنيرون وجهاً عبوسا

    With what can the back he bent be straightened?

    With what will you brighten a frowning face?

  23. وأى فؤاد يلاقى سروراً

    ولم يلق في العمر إلاّ نحوسا

    And what heart can find joy

    when it has met nothing in life but misfortune?

  24. بماذا تزيلون ذكر المحازى

    وقد عمَّت الأرض من قبل موسى

    With what will you erase the memory of disgraces,

    when they have filled the earth since before Moses?

  25. مخازٍ توالت وصالت فصارت

    على اللحم دوداً وفي العظم سوسا

    Disgraces followed one another and ran rampant, then became

    worms upon the flesh and woodworm within the bone.