1. Is there a cure that can heal my illness,
Or joy that can sweeten my bitterness?

2. Is there a just judge whose rule
Can save me from the tyranny of this harsh age?

3. I strive though I know not towards what end,
Nay, I strive only towards my death.

4. How many blessings have turned into curses,
And joys become sorrows!

5. When good fortune came to a youth
And he gained what he sought, it deserted him.

6. If the days have increased my wisdom,
They have diminished my innocence.

7. Or if they have augmented my experience,
They have bowed my determination.

8. It gladdens my eye with what it will lose
In a little while when my tears flow.

9. Each day I am in a calamity
With the vicissitudes of fate and its schemes.

10. It loans me my comfort
Until it takes away my strength altogether.

11. It leads my deprivation to my death
And my pain to my pleasure.

12. Would that when it had made up its mind
To end my life, it had not given me my livelihood!

13. Had it been of its people,
It would have been without deception or trickery.

14. Yet people know I am a man
Who wards off harm from the vulnerable.

15. I bear no malice towards one who is weak,
Nor do I walk the paths of suspicion.

16. The charms of a coquettish damsel
Did not lead me into the fetters of passion.

17. I am resolute, never deviating for an instant
From the path of chastity.

18. You will not see in me an inclination
To any side that earns not my pleasure or displeasure.

19. In avoiding the labyrinths of love
I do not distinguish between old and young.

20. The realm of seriousness is my youth
And the realm of frivolity my maturity.

21. How many bitter fruits of passion
Have I been content to suffer!

22. For the soul is base when it transgresses
And noble when it resists.

23. So say to those who envy me persistently
In malicious envy of my fortune:

24. Do not blame me for what is in you;
You are safe forever from my blame.

25. My sin, in your eyes, is that
You fall short of what my power encompasses,

26. And that I have been, more than you,
Able to show generosity in times of crisis.

27. The late night guest comes closer
To my provisions than my family and kin.

28. And every caller asking my help
Has his request answered before his call.

29. Had they tried, they would not have tasted
Any excellence but what I have poured from my excess.

30. Nor would they have seen, in their own hands,
Any merit in me which is not pure.

31. And how they have longed to find me slip
Into error, but never succeeded!

32. My hand does not withdraw from me,
Nor do my feet slip if they stumble.

33. If you miss me, miss from amongst you
That obscure brooding silent one.

34. You deemed me insignificant
As I wept over my ruin amongst you.

35. I quell my rage, and when I am calm,
I emerge from rage into tranquility.

36. Amongst people, I am like one
Who is forever sad and forever sorry.

37. Their best is the worst of mankind
And their consciousness is like death.

38. I spend yet I am not pleased with what
Erodes my prime and my life's springtime.

39. Leave aside dishonor for those possessed by it;
In it lies nothing of value.

40. Do not stay where the vile
Can attack the lofty.

41. Nor where the eminent and lowly
Are esteemed alike.

42. You bore me though comfort is plentiful
When many share a burden.

43. And you know that your wealth
Rises and sets under the protection of my boldness.

44. I have warded off the gaps of destruction
With piercing stabs and strikes.

45. And the horses survive the fragments of lances
Or blessings in desolate places weakened.

46. The stab provokes them, and if a narrow,
Constricted rent confronts them,

47. They change their dark complexions
Into redness on the lances.

48. Above desolate, crumbling bridges
Where the winds have not blown as they blow,

49. Noble ones, calm one day, when
They see with their eyes the tumult of war,

50. Have they ever been made to drink at the pool
Except by my hands in the heat of battle?

51. In a terrible, appalling stance as if the youth
Stands halted over burning embers,

52. His limbs quiver and wither,
Scourged by the piercing blows of spears.

53. Do not bring me near one whose nose
Is filled with confusion and languor,

54. Whose only ambition is centered
On erecting pretentious nonsense.

55. He turns not from sin,
Nor rises to righteousness.

56. Never will you see me desirous
Of a breach that spurns my desire,

57. Nor do I care, after knowing it,
Who disclosed or concealed my secrets.

58. I will ride the terrors, either on
A towering steed or the noblest kind of death.

59. Perhaps I will attain what I seek
By striving, or be cleared of blame.