1. You rejoiced when the breeze blew, full of hope,
Yet fate’s fortunes, my friend, are ever fickle.

2. Have you not seen what time has done to nations past?
Tribes replaced tribes in endless cycle.

3. Ride your sand-mare amid the raiding parties unchecked,
And leave the sand-mare, O brother of raiding clans.

4. Lost is he who sold eternity and his life’s joy
For the bliss of days that number but a few.

5. Yet the fool chose length of days in his illusion,
For the long road of life leads not to glory.

6. Bodies differ—then all are made equal
In qualities and faults at the journey’s end.

7. The free man is cramped by his great height
While another is not content with nine concubines.

8. The delicate one hoards his ease, asking nothing
Of his cozy comfort to give a supplicant.

9. No man attains a rank of glory
Until he makes his wealth the means to aid the needy.

10. Had I returned from the Lion of the stars triumphant,
Or lodged in the tail of the Swooping Eagle,

11. Or were I the Ghoul King revered
In the comets, I'd not be safe from a sudden raid.

12. Youth was the darkness of sheltering wings—now it clears,
And old age walks in the waning light.

13. Age sends its words by stages
To offspring who spring from a serried line.

14. The least lucky mortal on earth
Is he content with the speech of but one praiser.

15. The living witness the mockery of words once grand
Over dust beneath clawing fingers.

16. You were benevolent, they say. But the ruins
Belie that claim by the deluded praiser.

17. Rejoice not in power that comes your way—
The risen and the fallen are much the same.

18. When a benefactor grants you a boon, beware
Lest reversal strike from an unexpected blow.

19. Wise minds permit no injury to orphans
Or violation of inviolable bonds.

20. Humiliating humans cannot prevent
Affliction—so arm yourself with a coat of mail.

21. The world's knots are more than the grains of sand,
Yet my briefest breath measures my longest tether.