1. When anger rages and every suspicion is inflamed,
And there is a touch that knows no rest,

2. Then they have attained the excellence of life and are counted
Among the noble and the brilliant.

3. Fifty years I have spent uselessly
In putting off a day to gnaw on my five fingers.

4. We hope for a return from tomorrow, though it comes,
And it would have been right to weep over yesterday.

5. This body has not ceased, since it left the earth,
To toil until it is returned to rot.

6. Did you not see the days of the youth in their sermons
Whispering intimately or softer than a whisper?

7. The glories of kings were intent on their decline
Openly, and the traces of nobility on their obliteration.

8. It left not the old glory to a horseman
And missed no right from its valiant cavaliers.

9. It showed you despite your nose the sword of the son of an unjust ruler
Its sheaths attached to the youth of resolve.

10. And the blood of the rooster who makes the call to prayer became
For the people of pleasures a necklace for the mouth of an effeminate catamite.

11. I am not pleased that I, the son of Sasan, lord it
Arrogantly over the king in the palace, morning and evening.