Not everything a man wishes for does he attain: the…

The ship represents our plans and the wind what lies outside our control. Desire and effort matter, yet circumstances can alter the course. The maritime image expresses that limit without erasing human agency.

The poem containing this verse opens: “What solace is there? No kin, no homeland, no drinking companion, no cup, no dwelling.” Al-Mutanabbi first laments his loneliness, asks of his time what time itself cannot attain, and advises meeting fate “unconcerned”: joy does not last, and grief brings nothing back. He then addresses those at whose gathering he was reported dead in his absence: how often he was “killed” and “died” among them, only to rise, “and the grave and the shroud vanished”; those at his burial even died “before the one they buried”. Then comes the verse, a general maxim, before an open reproach: “I have seen that your neighbour’s honour is not safe”; closeness to them is repaid with weariness.

The poem is usually counted among those he wrote in Egypt, after leaving Sayf al-Dawla’s court in Aleppo. Its words show he had left those he reproaches: “after my departure I lay awake, missing you”, he says, blaming them for growing angry “with whoever received your gifts”. Hence its mix of homesickness and reproach.

The verse is now among the best-known lines on disappointment, its second hemistich a proverb in itself: sailing ships do not choose the wind that drives them, nor does a man always choose what time brings him. It is quoted as consolation for a loss, or to recall that wishing alone is not enough.

Diwan

The text appears in the indicated source. A traditional attribution remains distinct from proof of authorship: see the context.

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