1. Do I seek in each day some wish I renew
And worldly means I pursue in delusion?

2. A soul aspires were it in a winged one
Of strength to restrain it and return it.

3. It treats heedlessness as intent while awake
As the rightly guided in darkness lose their way.

4. When I say one day its wings have ended
It defiantly swerves from the path of truth after that.

5. I chastise it for every evil, but maybe
In good it does not fulfil its promise.

6. I reckon its Master as befits it
And that I, from overwhelming obedience, am its slave.

7. It sees in my tongue what piety it wishes
And good deeds, yet my actions contradict them.

8. I yearn a path I see no traveller take
As if I surmise it and others desire it.

9. I forget sins that came and exceeded counting -
My Lord records them for requital.

10. I admit them reluctantly and no use is it to me
As denying excuses' pages are folded.

11. When its ugliness' harm appeared to me
And the cold of the Abode of Retribution was exposed,

12. I regretted that I had no regret
To wash my hands of it if I wished to return it.

13. I did not see the world turn from one
Who loves it and treats it well in its turning away.

14. It gives them from itself bitter poison in gulps,
How would it be if its count were good for people?

15. I clung to it pretending to mend its tatters
And to untie its knots and to tie its knots.

16. Desire leads it astray time and again
And takes it captive young as it pleases on its return.

17. It did not deal justly displaying all its surface
To some, while where eyes don't see is its hatred.

18. I see that despite all its faults it is beloved -
What hearts has its love filled!

19. Yet the world's children's love of life is faulty,
In it is a gap in the soul nothing can close.

20. Oh how stubborn against wrong you are content,
While others are deluded by its flowing favours!

21. How did you hope for its good when facing you
Were its turned backs scowling yesterday?

22. You had tried its meagre benefits
And it made you drink the cup of bitternesses deeply.

23. Its heat alternated with its cold in you,
No harm were its heat then its cold.

24. Had it not brought you unwillingly its bliss,
No harm would its every harm have availed.

25. May God water a heart in whose depths
Is no desire for it, untouched by its passion!

26. That fears not its ill-fortune and so passes the night
Thirsty, except what makes him happy is its joy.

27. It lightens from its supplies his collar's fullness,
Then its loss is slight to him at that point.