1. I find no solace in lament, no companion to grieve with me,
No one stays in the abode of the departed.

2. No loyal friend, should I grant him my love
Or withdraw it and leave him.

3. No wise man offers me his advice,
Or walks with me wherever I go.

4. If time has scorned me, leading me
To hate those I once loved, so be it.

5. Do you not see me in dark night enveloped,
Where dawn for people is lost or dead?

6. I complained but gained no benefit,
Yet to whom would one like me complain?

7. Each day a treacherous brother degrades me,
Casts me down though I touched the stars.

8. If I do not restrain his anger, people shun him,
Or if I weep for him, they laugh.

9. How often have I censured one deserving blame,
Offering him a glance of disapproval, but he does not refrain.

10. Owning myself and my dwelling never harmed me,
If I am not lord of their tent poles.

11. As long as your honor is unblemished among men,
Leave your property open to plunder.

12. And guard your life, humiliated,
Lest it be shed like the blood of souls.

13. Do you not see sustenance comes to man abundantly
From afar? So leave stinginess and slackness!

14. Leave caution, for how much caution will you take
That does not ward off disaster befalling you?

15. Man strays, led astray, to the right course,
And escapes, confused.

16. How often the lawless roam freely,
While the lawful carry doubt's burden!

17. I have a friend of the suburbs who pretends
To me love while cloaked in enmity.

18. When I make things easy for him he grieves for me,
When I perform ablution at his house, he is troubled.

19. Whenever his insides swell against me,
He soothes them with his claws and bites me.

20. He sheds tears on his cheeks to make me think
He loves me, yet he never cries for love.

21. Whenever I think he is in my hands,
I find him shared among the people.

22. A friend whose glance my eyes mistook,
Who was neither innocent nor faithful when tested.

23. I took him in and spent my whole life wishing
I had left him.

24. Between me and people there is a veil I patch,
If I neglected mending it, it would be torn.

25. So say to those envious of the merit I possess,
“Merit, my people, in this world belongs to those who possess it.”

26. My branches thrived, so why should I be blamed by people
Whose trees never grew or bore fruit?