1. No doubt in ruin, no dispute,
Life is a debt, its term is fixed.

2. Man is preoccupied with his own death,
Why long for swords and weapons?

3. Darkness and daylight brandish weapons
In which armors and robes are equal.

4. So the stars of night are like unsheathed swords
And the dawn a sword whose blaze has no scabbard,

5. If only the life of a young man could be extended
As long as his hopes and dreams extend!

6. These are the watering places of life, and we
Depart from them burdened only with shackles.

7. We kneel to drink from its basin, and we are like
Camels driven away after being let loose to graze.

8. A cup that has poured out its pleasures,
In which pure wine and honey mix.

9. Each person ends up somewhere, the only difference
Is in speed and delays along the way.

10. People are riders urged onward,
Not happy until they have dismounted.

11. A journey will be completed, though long,
By riders made weary and miserable.

12. How can one count the world his homeland
When he shuns it and departs?

13. We copied our lifetimes and were stingy with
Wealth, so generosity and stinginess were confused.

14. We seek exoneration from one who quickly
Answers us, and illness is vanquished.

15. But he who carried the grievous, indelible illness lost it
Just as a lover's scolding is lost on the lovesick fool.

16. If the coward flees his death,
The brave man still meets his appointed time.

17. Only when free will fails
Are souls surrendered to predestined fates.

18. Necessity has humbled the dejected,
And dialogue may lead to the unsolvable.

19. Hardship was eased after becoming severe,
For each living thing is confused for its mother.

20. And he who attained lofty glory avoided
Lowlands, while the high peaks submitted.

21. Not even open air relieves the wandering madman,
Nor does swimming in deep water save a drowning man.

22. The wretched lizard is led in its glory
And the colt is tamed in its humiliation.

23. Those who guard the family's dignity are,
When fate attacks, secluded.

24. What home is protected when the robes
Of religion are torn by the fangs of a predator?

25. Snatching the pearl from the diver's hand,
The oysters' shells are split open.

26. We did not know before the sun set
That the affluent would return to dirt.

27. Oh what misery for the disasters! How
The Pleiades' companions are separated!

28. If it astonishes us, no surprise—
The scab appears on the infant's forehead.

29. Glory did not recoil when it was hit by this,
Nor did honor retreat though it stumbled.

30. A product of preceding nobility
Who walked ahead while the hasty belittled it.

31. From the rooms in which they secluded themselves
To the graves in which they settled.

32. In Mecca the sacrificial camels are slaughtered,
But only the worn are slaughtered because of them.

33. Gently! The grieving profits nothing,
Nor does the desolate gain but by his own singing.

34. Can loved ones be brought back if they leave,
By a lover who is censured for yearning?

35. You were forbidden from the condolence gathering and told:
"He is made an example for you."

36. How many moons have set from your sky
And how many mountains sunk into your earth?

37. Yet you shed no remorseful tears,
Though the fires of sorrow blaze.

38. You bade them farewell as if you perceived
That they had recovered and departed from you.

39. When elegies for your loved ones are recited
You listen as if hearing love poems.

40. We do not know if your hearts are carved
From rock or shaped by your tears and sorrows!

41. You are a band brought close together,
All grinding teeth, but with loosened bonds.

42. One who turns from you will have a successor,
And one who leaves you will have a replacement.

43. Time is blind but has blessing and hand
Outstretched, which no man among you became.