1. He who ascends the heights of glory
How can the turns of fate assail him as he goes?

2. You who complain of the injustice every freeman suffers -
It does not unsettle the freeman to find you complaining

3. Loftiness is hard to climb - it has wearied those who would ascend;
Yet you never ceased in your lifetime to be a climber.

4. They said, "He has slipped and fallen into error" -
But I said, "Far be it that the sublime should stray!"

5. Say he sought a palace stair but started descending
While he was climbing the stairway to glory.

6. So one foot could not at a single time
Be slipping down while the other was rising aloft.

7. Come now, press on to the folds of glory revealed -
Your striving after supreme heights is the best striving!

8. You have wrapped yourself always in the cloak of life
To waste your enemies and remain throughout time.

9. The praised stars in their orbits are harnessed
While the Lesser Bear circles around the Pivot of Pride.

10. My glorious friend - had they but done you justice,
Your very heel would no longer be gazed on by people!

11. Were people to spread out the carpets of their cheeks before him,
It would only be the least he deserves that was rendered.

12. Honor him with a moist branch hung thick with fruit
Till I see you bending its boughs in graciousness!

13. His loftiness or his coming down in bounty -
Neither the open nor the tight fist can diminish.

14. The winds of happiness once shook him
When the suppliant stretched out a hand toward him.

15. What can the envious say if his sandal should slip,
Upon which rests the shoulder of the Greater Bear?

16. If a sandal slips, its noble wearer refuses to slip -
He whose climb to the heights has never ceased.

17. Each day there are messages from battles around me -
For whom will I risk my soul in ransom?

18. I am worn by time - its events expose me,
While time in its turn is worn down by my patience!

19. O loneliness that has exiled me in its strange events,
And sheltered me with the fires of anxiety!

20. There has passed me in you what was easiest for me -
My times have yearned for it, if only they were quenched!

21. My heart has settled in a land it will never leave,
Infatuated, drawn to the farthest end of the range.

22. I am like the pointer of a compass describing a circle -
The guide has become intent on aligning it.

23. So its shaft is not in the place it was last night,
And its point sweeps over the edges as it swings.

24. Once it coincided with the rest of the needles for a while,
Until we met and it effaced them, for now they are gone.

25. Were it not for enemies and fickle times, I would have a land
In which I could rest and be content.

26. My journey nears its close - shall I ever again
Make the journey back to my beginning in withdrawal?

27. Do you not see me propping my back with my hands
When I walk, even drawing near my last steps?

28. After the night of old age's darkness, what excuse remains
That I do not see a guide to the roads before me?

29. The blackness of my hair that I dyed - I renewed it
With whiteness again after it had faded.

30. Is there any robe but the dusty ragged one
When the whiteness I renewed has worn away?

31. The dust of white hair covers over my youth
And I sleep wrapped in the written fate.

32. The book of my life - its pages are yellowed with nights,
And the yellowed cannot be rolled up again.

33. The glancing blow of a whim will not strike
Straight as an arrow if the bow is bent.

34. I am the son of a time that has abandoned me -
All my brothers have gone to claim its sons.

35. The great ones - their abandonment is not concealed,
And I was not hoping for help from the insignificant.

36. However, all the sins of time are pardoned,
And the mention of them erased from my heart's page.

37. Time overlooks a stumble here and there -
It has rewarded me for overlooking its stumbles.

38. It asked my pardon until I pardoned, following its example,
When before I had never pardoned time.

39. If someone disowns me for my time's accusation of him,
I am cleared of complaint, and we are quits!

40. I have safety, though the barren reign is safeguarded by it,
Compelling thanks for a time so long complained of.

41. So say to your fate as it takes up work again -
For its resting places, it has been granted amnesty!

42. O you in whom the health of realms resides -
When you are healed, say all the world is healed!

43. Were it not for your restraint of fate,
Never would I cease accusing it while I live.

44. You have given fate a true excuse -
The mention of it erases every former sin.

45. Take to yourself one I would not approve, though
You have attained the noblest of moral traits.

46. I am one who apologizes for past shortcomings,
Which redouble my shame when repeated.

47. But how can I apologize for shortcomings
When my apology itself is a shortcoming?

48. O perfect one in whom the scattered heights are gathered -
And who has set out to virtue and virtue's increase!

49. He is never done gently reforming a corrupt nature -
Evil turns good under the touch of his reform!

50. However much I make excuses, I remain
Bowing my eyes to the ground in shame before people.

51. You take my twisted excuse and straighten it out
Displaying it evenly to the world wherever it is cited.

52. Like wax taking the impression of a seal -
Its writing is reversed so people can read it clear.

53. My poetry - and you are its narrator - is raised up by your voice.
My poetry and your poetry wherever they are recited!

54. The sea casts up pearls that once lay hidden
In the ears of its oysters when they were aware.

55. You are the sea, indeed, of bliss and dew
When you come forth to us flowing freely!

56. It is as if you are gentleness and generosity -
A cloud wrapped in kindness and lent to the clouds.

57. Be joyous! - Time's bounty and you are its bridegroom.
What great fortune you have had from it - you have been fortunate!

58. All of time has joined together for you in its beauty,
Ugly things hidden in its beauty and obscured.

59. Sublimity is the necklace - you who wear it!
Yet your time has adorned itself using you as jewelry!

60. The excellent cannot wear the string of pearls fit for it
In jewelry until the wire supporting it is also jeweled.

61. O skilled composer in diffuse and compact words,
In excellent action customary or newly undertaken!

62. When what you have done becomes beautiful, we say
By your deeds you have accumulated expertise.

63. If you wish to look at the world's happiness,
Then gaze upon your face in the mirror!

64. And if the night of grave affairs has no dawn,
Then be its dawn by the light of your discernment!

65. Loyal ones have turned to you from time's caprice -
When it went tyrannically wrong in days before.

66. Victory is always guaranteed by the Lord of the Throne
To the one tyrannized without cause.

67. May he who has turned tyrannical toward the rank
Sublime, though he falls short of deserving it, be ransomed!

68. Their advancing him was meant to draw him nearer,
While their preparing you was meant to destroy him.

69. Like an arrow its eager shooter brings closer to thrust far,
Or a sword its zealous bearer draws near to unsheathe.

70. Let gladness and ease return to people - the beloved bough
Of a generous brother's tree whose gifts are hoped for!

71. His splendor has returned to the sultan's court -
The eyelid separates only so the two can meet!

72. He has completed the treasured gift by giving generously,
As the bough only adorns itself when it is stripped bare.

73. May he remain ever the pillar of the radiant state,
Made its guide, set upright, advancing with integrity!

74. He it is who never ceased to build for glory,
Bending to great deeds or accumulating praise.

75. From his subtlety come breaths which, if exhaled,
Can bring dead bone to life again for the valiant one.

76. Until God has cleared aside the obstruction,
He was the sickness in my heart seeking its edges.

77. So redeem him from the blows of fate descending,
My intertwining - he is more worthy than any ransomed!

78. He brings my distant goals closer when they are far,
Just as he answers my call for victory when invoked.

79. His breast is bursting with seas - were the earth's oceans
Poured into him, still they could not quench his thirst!

80. Wisdom will sustain him in the dearth his folly causes -
How many a gush of ignorant passion restrains him!