1. When the darkness of affliction clouded my horizons for a while
I looked at its darkness, then smiled

2. And if the nights' afflictions were prolonged
I overcame their evils as I overcame

3. An era in which I found no friend
To share my joy if I rejoiced

4. So how could I have a friend in it
To console me if I grieved

5. I knew people from east and west
So alas for those I knew

6. They died, and died, and then died
And the covenant and pact died

7. I cried for them, but no longer cry
For a time whose company I wasted

8. The vicissitudes of fate never folded a wing
With its strong resolve I aspired

9. I spent a lifetime, none saw me
Standing at the door of any creature

10. Neither did I disgrace my knowledge, nor my structure
Nor tread the stairs of ambitions

11. One affliction will pass and another will come
But the afflictions of the free have no time

12. And my spirit remains lofty and brave
I straighten with it and wrest what I want

13.
So return, O turns of fate, return

14. Wailing and howling as I knew you
For you have no abode but my heart

15. And the heart of the free is home to perils
Come to my heart, do not fear

16. For I have become intimate with adversities
You will find strangeness in a heart

17. I built as I built
And you will see noble pains

18. With which I honored my time
If people become great by grants

19. By their deprivation I became great
A great one, I never said one day to anyone

20. By the outpouring of your hands, O this, I became
My structure is erect, aspiring

21. I seek from the noble deeds what I desired
I fear and dread infidelity if