1. A sin against fate with no intercessor,
A prophecy without a defender against its misfortunes,

2. A virtue too difficult to attain accompanied by
A wise heart and eloquent tongue,

3. And a trait whose custom is loyalty when
An era has betrayed it in submission,

4. So it spends its evenings in distress
And a life of lowliness with extensive ruin.

5. And I abandoned the lessons of knowledge and turned away
For they hinder sustenance and cut it off,

6. And I befriended the ignorant brother so you may gain favor
And the rising star will bring you joy.

7. So whoever in this age has etiquette,
Will eat though his life passes in loss.

8. And as for poetry, how I have pursued it,
Yet its ears of a people did not find a listener.

9. Every automobile that sped became an example
That the cultivated and skillful speaker talked about.

10. No fault can be attributed to it but
The fickleness of fortune when its time turned away.

11. Fate, ever ungrateful, deferred it
To a time when the virtuous no longer stirred.

12. In it the suns of knowledge have set
And the stars of merit no longer rose for it.

13. Through it a wretched few prevailed,
And a throng of people, humble, followed suit.

14. And for one obsessed with high status, I gave advice
While religion is the advice brought by the Messenger.

15. Leave off pursuing it, for the decoy ensnares
None but the foolish with its misleading hopes.

16. And remove from the soul some of the burden
It carries from the days, adjusting it to its capacity.

17. In it, the lame scaled the heavens.
Do you not see that its eagles have swooped down?

18. By nightfall, its schools are prey
To the talons of the kites, unprotected and undefended.

19. It has no students but ruins,
And no sciences, just a submissive teacher.

20. This during a night whose glancing star
Shines in it like a street,

21. While the stars wander confused,
Walking the horizon like one rising.

22. I refused to feed sleep this night,
Youthful vigor has cracked through me magnificently.

23. My pact with it and passion intercede for it
While the crack helps love's intercession.

24. It is the Husna of a brilliant quarter with features
From the charming Husna of its neckline.

25. The era has cast it down and I have not
Been fated in it a final meeting.

26. So it laughed and bent reproachfully
While reproach to the noble is a rebuke that suppresses.

27. I was amazed it complained though I saw it
In the garden of Ibn Bustan, a flourishing branch.

28. O Judge of Judges of Syria, our Master
Whose bounty I still aspire to.

29. The best of men the lonely star aimed for
With its purest hopes in abundant ambition.

30. To him his father's knowledge flowed
And he received it beneficially.

31. With a resolve always led
By determination that drives the piercing spearhead,

32. And speech - if its eloquence were understood,
Suhban would seem to himself just babbling nonsense.

33. My Master, his open-handed munificence gathers,
And the door of his assembly is refuge for the desperate.

34. To his family I came complaining
Laying my story openly before them.

35. A debt against fate that the most malicious adversary
Burdened the youth with.

36. None but the observant sage sees
Its distribution from the all-encompassing bounty,

37. And a need in my soul not yet fulfilled
For which my silence before you is no intercessor.

38. Fulfilling a promise you graciously made
To a slave of humble status at your door.

39. His consent is in what his Master deems fit.
The best slave is content with his allotted share.

40. And I submit, and my tears flowed over arts
While moisture and weeping saturate the pillow.