1. Time has both gathered and parted me,
And death has an unmatched decree,

2. Yet the newcomers in their hate recite,
Blessing and curse with success and accord.

3. Nothing is stranger than their two states,
They do not wear out, all creatures wear away,

4. My strength to them and not people's in my seeking,
Is like a lover's to the one he loves.

5. And they are honored in denying me my quest,
And my knowledge of the ways of stratagems.

6. I did not come to Baghdad opening,
The door of livelihood out of ignorance or halt,

7. But the two feet's limp hindered me from my goal,
And the means of life with going far and coming near.

8. Baghdad is a goodly abode for the wealthy,
And for the bankrupt, an abode of woe and strait.

9. I dwelt in it in the meadow of eternity,
For the house of Persia, among vile Arabs.

10. In a time in which the sky swore to me,
That I should not see the sun clearly in it.

11. So the cloud swore from my letter and my trouble,
That it would not slacken from my grief and hindrance.

12. The abode of bliss, but its people turned,
From knowledge to foolishness and handclapping.

13. I became despised among its inhabitants,
As if I were a Koran in a heretic's house.