1. Slow down, O Isaac, and listen, for I ransom you with virtue when lament is heard.
Is it right to abandon a friend though he has no sin?

2. If there be sin, reproach should come before rebuke.
No flaw lies in the judgment of the generous, though forbidding sin,

3. Except when the heart fills up with it and stinge overtakes or a mote lodges in the eye,
And harm grows, then rebuke, but no more rebuke,

4. When a man finds no obedience in himself,
Yet charges his brother with obedience, so he bears the sin.

5. Whenever you seek to oblige a friend cautiously,
You diminish what his reproach might nurture.

6. Proof that no flaw lies in a youth obeying
His brother, though senior, nor can anger take hold,

7. Is that the pious left off obeying God after
He nourished them with the bounty of food, for He is Lord,

8. How then, when no sin is counted nor heart reproached
Save glimmerings which, if pondered, disappear,

9. Suspicions which are rashness, baseness,
And accusation whose reward is anguish?

10. Do not charge your brother with a sin though he desist,
For the eye in its course may waver.

11. If you say the sweet drink was spoiled
With bitterness, behold, your own sweet drink is bitter too.

12. When a whisperer whispers to you, such a one
Spreads whispers about you, and the matter spreads.

13. Have you not seen that if a star rises
In the east, the like of it sets in the west?

14. So the keen sword may sometimes miss its mark
Like a youth’s arrows, be it never so sharpened and straightened.

15. And if a man draws you near in a foreign land
And lodges you before the living, he is a brother in law.

16. Bread has a right which the incapable cannot observe,
But the wise and mild do observe its right.

17. It is right that man should observe his due,
And duly preserve it, if even the dog preserves it.

18. If you say there is no peace, a spark having flown,
There is no safety unless it precedes war.

19. When you forgive the time out of necessity,
Forgive its people too, if crooked natures appear.

20. Take what is pure and be content with pardon from men,
So you may live in peace, for blows invite blows.

21. The small vipers and scorpions are worse in evil,
Slay them unguarded, though there be no cause for blame.

22. Never despise an enemy, though he appear
Under your hands as a cutting sword with a broken hilt.

23. How often the wounded rose up against his foe!
The ribs once fallen, now to him make obeisance.

24. How often a cunning schemer lay prostrate!
How often the helpless suddenly accomplished profit!

25. If there is no love, then let there be no hate,
And if there is no praise, then let there be no abuse.