1. The sorrows that haunt me in the darkness, what business have they with me?
They have kept me awake and prevented me from resting.

2. My heart is full of cares that have not crossed my mind before.
I am in love though age has sprinkled my temples with white.

3. Indulgence does not become the aged and world-weary.
There is no malady for which oblivion is the cure,

4. Only sadness and ennui remain.
I gaze at the stars in the dark as though they were

5. The flowers of gardens or the tinkling of ornaments.
As though the thorns of the cactus were in my bed,

6. And the stuffing of my pillows were hyacinths.
When my disquieting thoughts close in upon me

7. And the bed becomes uncomfortable, I get up and go out walking,
I come out like the dead emerging from their graves

8. And mount the back of the night uncaring,
I go along the paths with their shadows, released, it seems

9. From my shackles, speeding though I know not whither
In pursuit of some hope among hopes.

10. I am stopped in my tracks by the clamour of a tavern
That holds its habitués enthralled.

11. They crowd around the dancing girl drinking her in
Like birds around a scarecrow with tinkling anklets.

12. In the heedlessness of the drinkers in the deepening gloom -
Indeed, the heedlessness of the drinkers is happiness -

13. Their reason and bloom of youth are plundered
By the cunning and deceitful tavern keeper.

14. He sends them to their deaths under the guise of generosity;
Truly evil is the wine whose headache in the morning

15. Becomes the fetter of cares and the pledge of regrets.
O robber of souls, show some pity,

16. It should suffice you that you have robbed them of their money.
Do not debase those souls, though they are fickle;

17. Souls, however small, are a divine trust.
And then I see a drunkard wandering in a daze -

18. Crazed, stumbling, wavering in his steps as though
He were walking on hot embers,

19. Reeling to and fro like a bough between the north wind and the zephyr,
Wine has tied his tongue though he sees clearly and moves

20. His limbs with ease. He falls like a gallant steed to the ground,
Crushed by burdens too heavy to bear.

21. And the policeman approaches him with swaggering stride
Glancing to either side of him like a languishing lover

22. Watching out for the forbidding chaperone.
And I saw his club sticking out of his pocket,

23. So I understood the reason for the fraud's restlessness.
Do not wonder at what I tell you of him -

24. Imagine how much villainy that garment conceals!
Then he bent over smiling, and I saw a youth

25. In tattered clothes lying prostrate.
He went up to him and nudged him but found only a lifeless body.

26. He bent down over him, embracing him while copious tears
Flowed from him like a streaming cloud.

27. He brought the news to his family and they broke into laments
While his wife loudly bewailed her misfortune.

28. They had wept until their tears were spent, then humiliated him
Though tears may not always be shameful.

29. And I saw his little children bewildered
By their plight, yearning for their father.

30. They do not understand grief, only sob vaguely -
What is grief to little ones but sobbing?

31. I did not know, until they enshrouded him,
That the truly wretched is he who leaves orphans.

32. I grieved for him, shroudless, his hand did not wield the sword
Or march out to battle.

33. He perished, victim of his ignorance - how many wretched souls
Have died as martyrs of ignorance and neglect!

34. I returned, my heart rent with sorrow, and poured out my lament to you
And mourned the condition of the workers:

35. Shelterless, in the claws of hardship,
While over them hover the claws of beasts of prey.

36. Ignorance and poverty - two fatal dangers! Nothing is more deadly
Than the coming together of ignorance and want.

37. Come to the aid of your brothers, for their lives
Are beset by fearsome perils and tribulations!

38. How fitting it would be for the ignorant folk to learn -
Knowledge is the source of awe and majesty.

39. Struggle to spread knowledge among them, for when
The clouds pour down, the valleys are clearly revealed.

40. When an ignorant man learns and finds guidance,
He brings enlightenment to his people and family.

41. O people! If you do not help your poor,
Why then such hoarding of wealth?

42. Why not rest content with praise as treasure enough?
Surely praise is the treasure of the virtuous.

43. Are you not descended from those whose outstanding merit
Shines like stars in the greatest examples?

44. Be generous! Only the praiseworthy survive,
Wealth is a fleeting phantom.

45. Alas! However numerous, possessions do not last,
How could they endure, when their Lord is destruction?