1. I say to Abdel Mohsen today in verse
What I see as truly guiding him

2. You have tried but gained nothing useful
To please a friend or do wrong to a foe

3. Success would have been yours had you listened
Behind you what you desire of merit and dew

4. Many a striver has seen the sea behind him
Yet thirsts for a sip to slake his thirst

5. You spent money which had you been content with some
Your life would have sufficed as pasture and stream

6. So you gained not what you attempted but loss
Nor attained what you hoped but frustration

7. How many hopes bring misery to the dreamer
And wishes the youth faces yet is denied

8. Welcome after your absence in which
You spent days but alas in vain

9. Relish the refined, elegant wine or disdain it
For its shade, but its contents are for joy

10. With the joyful dew, bitter enmity is tempered
Forgiveness for the wrongdoer though he transgress

11. A brother for whom you’d ransom yourself with wealth
I swear had you been just, you’d sacrifice yourself

12. Had you reinforced him by shouldering responsibility
You would have, by God’s life, attained honor and help

13. Had you been persistent, you’d have made it
With your right hand an undrawn sword

14. You choose nothing but His favor
Unlike one who chooses misguidance over guidance

15. Yet if you are not fortunate
Do not expect good fortune from people

16. Piety will protect you from its piercing arrows
Whenever fate shoots you an arrow on target

17. If you sever ties as he did
You’ve severed, by my life, a hand from your hands

18. Entrust not hopes beyond this
To unattainable fanciful wishes

19. It is folly if one insists on wrong
Committing what corrupts even if he reforms

20. Live as you wish in the shade of His care
You’ll find life most pleasant as you’ve never seen