1. O neighbor of sin, there lives in your dwellings
A youth who complains to the Nile of the hardship of being away from home

2. The nights have conspired against him and handed him over
To calamities, in the company of those who are not righteous

3. Fate has tested him in the tribulations of his exile
A soul of meaning and a body accustomed to voyaging afar

4. He strives for glory though its dangers cast him
Among the shards of its usefulness and harms

5. His solace is that the outcome of every mundane thing
Afflicts the free man with a crown of thorns

6. O flickering lightning, hearts tremble at the sight
Like burning rage in the belly of an arrogrant tyrant

7. Come let me send you from my soul a storm
That casts down people, and from my heart a tempest

8. People, what are people? You know not their inner thoughts
Nor what evil and fire they hatch

9. If the unknown were to reveal one day their fates
The meager would be a people, oh what meagerness!

10. The prophets were perplexed in purifying their nature
So what can the use be of the likes of me and my poetry?

11. My Lord I have believed, but I am in danger
Doubt ambushes me in my openness and secrecy

12. Among the people I have mixed scattered traits
That prick those who love the work of the Creator

13. I see faces that promise true affection
But I see no shadow of a heart that is not fickle

14. How many kinsmen have I consoled and supported
Who secretly harbor a hostile and harmful heart?

15. May God forgive you, this outpouring has overwhelmed me
I have poured it into poetry, it was not intentional