1. Alas, O my people, for adversity and time,
And for a man who brings ruin upon himself unknowing,

2. Alas, would that I knew, to the mother of Ma'mar,
What we have encountered of severance and estrangement,

3. My heart meets tribulations with patience,
Toward her, though she is not remembered at times of remembrance,

4. So my heart, none has loved as you have loved,
And her love, nothing has deluded like it has deluded,

5. And she has no reward for the one whose heart,
Is afflicted with her, whether of recompense or gratitude,

6. I saw the brother of worldly life though he be ignoble,
A brother of ease afforded him though he knows not,

7. And how many righteous were ruined in the land,
It overflowed them with smoothly sliding ruin,

8. So none of glory was saved by his glory,
And none of loss were left forlorn for poverty,

9. When I saw that it was but a blow,
From the sword or aversion of an eye upon a lute string,

10. I set about a matter which does not shame my father
When revealed or for which my grave is blamed,

11. We shot and so we shot and so our arrow
Struck the appointed death of a soul in a book and decree,

12. And you, O Commander of the Faithful, we have,
No refuge beyond you nor any might beside yours,

13. If you begrudge us our wealth we extend not a cubit,
And if patience, then we patiently endure patience,

14. And if it be killing, you care not, we endure
Killing, for in wars we are wont to patience,

15. And how many calamities, if the least of them,
Passed over time, would humble the highs of time.