1. Let my specter in love hide and appear,
And do not reproach me, for youth excuses.

2. For he who you blamed
Is a young man whose back is bowed by the vicissitudes of fate.

3. You blame everything you have done in yourselves
Except vileness in yourselves which is taken advantage of and thanked.

4. If you shed the water of tears, then it was only
Because I used to beg for tears and hoard them.

5. May God water a land I will not mention,
So that my passions for it are known when it is mentioned.

6. Except that it is the musky earth, its breeze
Is gentle, dewy, and the wild cows moo.

7. I enjoyed it while he poured me his cups,
Smooth-cheeked, bright-faced, one-eyed.

8. By God, I do not know if it was extracted
From grapes or squeezed from the sun.

9. When the wings of darkness poured it and strained it,
You would see the mantle of night folded and spread.

10. My friend, look and see if you see today what I see.
You see a sedition whose fires are blazing.

11. So do not befriend the obstinate fool if you are my friend.
I forbade you from my nature while you had the choice.

12. You will know, if you test me in hardship
And test him, which of the two swords is more victorious.

13. And he who gives you your hearing first
And who acts toward the slaughter of your Master is redder,

14. Will destine you for a matter in which wrongdoing gleams behind it.
Do you feel the wrong that tries?

15. Tomorrow, every people will set right their broken ones,
And the stumbling of a neighbor whose bone is broken will not be set right.

16. He sleeps the tranquil sleep, while my sleep
Passed with swords terrifying me.

17. If only I had worn my ropes in the obedience of God,
Ordered by the noble, memorable one.

18. If only I had judged the one I disputed with before him,
A judge would have judged for me, his judgment unchangeable.

19. But I associated with vain dreams
And dwelled with laziness that sleeps while I stay up.

20. Think, when I came crying for help,
The distressed does not cry for one who ponders.

21. He saw glory between the two armies as booty
To be for whoever brave the spears and is patient.

22. So he did not ride the deceit in seeking exaltation.
Will the garment of lowliness not cloak one who does not boast?

23. If an opportunity presented itself to the ardent soul
Which its seeker misses until its pursuit passes.

24. He notices it until its seekers miss it
And wakes up to find it gone.

25. I called you to the horses but they shunned me,
So you were slave girls driving away the caravans.

26. And because I feared affliction, I escaped to you
But found in you more than I had feared.

27. I did not know that the wrong I chose in some of what I chose
Was the wrong when I came to you.

28. And I said to you, “Return the harmony of your neighbor.”
But you could not overcome vileness as I could.

29. So you spurned goodness for its own sake.
Did you not consider that speeches have effect?

30. The vigilante will preserve what you wasted,
Lighting up when the times darken and dawn.

31. When cowardice frightened him, he eyed his sword
And how can glory disappear while the sword appears?

32. You kept malice against him secret.
So that malice appeared.

33. You wanted thereby the greatest, so it took your heads,
While the subtle one dug beneath it.

34. And no audacious truthful one in adversity smiles
And continues frowning at his enemies.

35. Lower the throat of the sinner over your hearts
For the gazes of those lying in wait are watching.

36. Do not feel safe from the mouths of the honorable, for it
Guffaws in your eyes while snarling.

37. So governor of governors, you let them spread
With your forbearance until they defied you and rebelled.

38. They came to you brandishing swords and spears
And returned shattered within them and broken.

39. For those lying in wait only tattered parts in them remained
Like shreds for them to piece together.

40. Reprimand their foolish advisor and forgive their sins
For the Lord of hands is He who dismisses and forgives.

41. Your anger at the sinners is a death sentence
While your pardon from it saves and protects.

42. I see a tree whose branches the promise has leafed
And you, if God keeps him safe, will bear fruit.

43. Others slandered, though things are turning favorable
And gave excuses due to preferment, though matters are managed.

44. But I will not wrong glory its right.
For your place in ordeals is higher and greater.

45. I make you inhabit the corners of earth and make them inhabit
The bellies of the earth, and God of people is more seeing.

46. And no cloud has left your comfort
That covers my land whose vegetation time keeps green.

47. By God, I will not forget a hand of yours. But rather
A thing is misguided and forgotten by one who remembers.

48. A hand, however I gestured, obtained its bestowal,
And in it richness for the solicitor and pride.

49. You removed the grit so my eyes could look
While I from the excess of humiliation did not see.

50. You cut short the harm from me and my sighing
That scattered my soul while death rattles were prepared.

51. One evening the doctor despaired me and said
“Your cure is out of reach and your wound infected.”

52. So convey to the Commander of the Faithful a message—
For every conveyor apart from you falls short.

53. Will he who cuts me off outwardly while
His tongue is for you and for him his heart when he walks away?

54. How so when we did no wrong—their staffs are preserved
And with your hands smoothed and peeled?

55. So do not leave it an objection for opponents
To betray through it in disputes and show treachery.

56. If attaining my right is difficult for you
Then the descent of death cannot be difficult.

57. Behold, a sword that file has whetted its blade!
Behold, a camel litter wherein utensils clatter!