1. O you who ask about me in Damascus,
Stop and listen to the tale of this idler,

2. Leave off hearing my love poems and passion,
What is the time for love and amorous verse?

3. All day long from door to door I roam,
Seeking, by your father's life, the roaming of shadows.

4. I have no luck in that except that
My spleen is lightened by the length of my journey.

5. I busy myself with work and leave seclusion behind,
Only to return, knowing neither what I do nor why.

6. When a place disappoints me and I seek out company,
I find all friends to be just like kin.

7. In these times there is no servant
To accomplish things but my own two hands.

8. Do you think the age will provide me a position
To protect my face from having to ask?

9. Saturn opposes my needs, and my back is bent
By worries into the shape of the letter dal.

10. What harm to Ismail, refuge of those who seek aid,
If he would protect me from these states?

11. With an accepted intercession that pours abundance,
Informing the expectant heart instantly.

12. Are you not a shoot planted by his hands? How then
Would he not revive the shoots with pouring rain?

13. O lord whose works of kindness the land has known
By the custom of favors and nobleness!

14. After your constant downpour no poured drink
Complains of the thirst of those in need.

15. This is the complaint of a pained, pleading man.
He has stated his case, and your judgment is lofty.