1. Alas! After you my heart
Awakened, leaving behind my vain desires.

2. So now the heart's consciousness is empty,
Preoccupied as it was with pressing concerns.

3. Why, O people, do I have no ambition
For a life of luxury or idleness?

4. I have no hope of gaining spoils of war,
Nor do I despair of getting nothing.

5. I do not yearn for the freshness of youth
Toward a fading evening of disappointed hopes.

6. I did not care to stay in a land
Where I was a guest soon to depart.

7. How strange that the wrist's adornment
Clings to one who is no intimate!

8. The carpenter of Yemen pours it out
And it settles amid the tribe of Wail.

9. It rises up the steep slope
Of fertile land beside the barren tract.

10. I seek refuge for you from the wiles of time
That judged the reasonable man a fool,

11. From the breaths of the bright morning
That rose over the abode of the dormant,

12. From the mouth that straightaway methinks
Presumption has led to request a favor,

13. And from talk whose success with listeners
Makes light of profound, well-reasoned speech,

14. From the youth's frustrated hopes of gain
And from hoping for wealth that is misleading,

15. From freshness for one whose origins are torn out,
Whose evening hopes are soon to disappear,

16. From the guile toward the unsuspecting young
That brought humiliation to the beggar,

17. For the people knew I had rambled
Far from where the rains pour down,

18. And I inspired their hostile tasting of me,
Disdaining proper behavior.

19. When I refused to give donations
I cast off the faithful as procrastinators.

20. So I was left bare, without a gift
Driving disgrace toward the hopeful.

21. I say to people who wish
The hand of the donor would point to them-

22. Whatever you wish of earnest, humble petition
And the water of life for them that ask-

23. If your benefit is delayed,
Then my repose before you takes precedence.