1. The lowborn calls, is there anyone like me?
So the nobles gaze at him perplexed,

2. Knock loudly on the door, knock loudly,
And try, O Zuwail, to enter the assemblies,

3. If only time knew of their faults,
It would hide shyly from them and the ancestors,

4. And many sincere ones said, beware of eminence,
And be lowly, for life is for the lowly,

5. But my mind and nature opposed me,
As I tried arrogantly to gather the flowers of nobility,

6. And where is eminence while time, O Hind, is asleep,
Busy with greed and ignorance over virtue,

7. If only the nights would forget their vigilance, for they
Are superior in nobility to the mean ones amongst the virtuous,

8. You see in the highest pulpits one deficient,
Wearing the mantle of perfection despite his deficiency,

9. And the eminent seize the chance of corruption,
And attain it before the noble ones of repute,

10. And the world draws misers to its bosom,
And dresses the beautiful in rags,

11. We are content with the sweet and bitter of time,
With what the most High has created, the best of creators,

12. The whispered utterance of one aggrieved, whose brother,
More pained than him, the dark nights have killed,

13. With it he sews the wound of his heart, as he claims,
But that is a false claim - yes, a false claim -

14. Does it improve the heart’s state when worry fills it?
Can it be purified when disquiet is its greatest preoccupation?

15. May God make an era forever unkind to the laudable
And a time unforgiving to the virtuous,

16. It has rained upon the ignorant and veiled
The intelligent with fire,

17. Through it the vile riffraff have gained power and become tyrannical,
And they extended the ropes of destruction upon glory,

18. A time whose deeds we have seen
Shocking matters that shake the foundations,

19. Hopes have parted from every noble,
Pure, splendid master from the masses of wicked men,

20. And through it the lords of prohibition have fallen asleep
And the undignified became the undignified,

21. Those who slander - may God thwart their efforts -
Have attacked the religion and Islam with a fatal raid,

22. And they have set up their trap of looting and theft,
And prepared every means for wrongdoing,

23. The affairs of their cunning plots which time has neglected -
So strange are the evils of those plots!

24. For days are heedless of the deeds of those who are wantonly aggressive,
Yet God is not heedless of what they do.