1. Greet its dwellings, both settled and nomadic
Covered with clouds, burdened and portentous

2. It has quenched you, O abode of love, after hope
And downpour pours, streaming heavily

3. Until it tames every unruly wanderer
Quenching all the thirsty and nourishing the feeble

4. Shall I weep for you, or weep for my days in you, or
My family, or the fading of blithe youth?

5. My tears cannot be apportioned by sorrow
Between loved ones and dwellings

6. I spent them wastefully, and here I am, present
Weeping with a weeping eye in a shelter

7. And if I cry out for solace, I call on one
Who does not respond, and I seek the aid of one who disappoints

8. Where are the gazelles I counted as companions
In your shade, withered and wasted?

9. Those who fled from a loved one out of dignity
And those made intimate with every valiant lion

10. Of every hated encounter, of dwellings
With courtyards wide for guest or settler

11. Difficult to access, hard on his enemies
Easy to approach for a loyal friend

12. They condoled the world, and their actions
Opposed its deeds, so it beset them with calamities

13. Until, when it assailed them with its afflictions
And cast them amidst tumult and tremors

14. It demolished their dwellings, and more cheerless than them
Were familiar gatherings and pride of assemblies

15. Woe to them, from a learned man and learning
And guarded tribes and impregnable forts

16. They were a burning in the breast of every opponent
And a speck roving in the eye of every aspirant

17. A haven for the anguished, and refuge for the fugitive
And neighbor of bold raids and hardships

18. They went the way of yesterday, none remains to inform
About them, and they vanished like fading shadows

19. And I remained after them, ally of sorrow
Cloaked in composure and resilience

20. They were happy with their rest, while here am I, after them
In misery that exasperates me and inner disquiet

21. So stranger is the misery of one wearied, in his place
After his family's rest and that of one departed

22. Leave this be, for you are steadfast against events
Meeting calamities knowing, like the ignorant

23. And be patient - in what befell you is no stigma
All of existence is prey to the archer's arrow