1. Though glory's path I tread, what am I doing?
Chaste, bold, determined, gaining, wooing,

2. Have I not tried my every art and skill?
Can any asker make report or kill?

3. That I'm your foe is my least arrogance;
My easiest estrangement: my advance.

4. If fate comes between my folk and me, what then?
Mere femmes can speak the speech of carping men.

5. My sins seem many to the ignorant mass,
My only crimes: sublime and of the class

6. That lives exalted. When I leave this earth
And men, I bear for them a thing of worth.

7. My name is known in every quarter; who
Could hide the shining sun, however few?

8. My secret thoughts weigh down the nights sometimes;
My will's content Outweighs my breathing climbs.

9. Late-comer in an age, yet I shall do
What early men essayed, but never knew.

10. On I go though the dawn be naked swords,
Press on though darkness mass its hydra hordes.

11. A steed am I whose bit no man has slipped,
Yemen blade bare that no man's palm has gripped.

12. If to wear arms brings honour to a youth,
Sword is but scabbard, writs are warders, couth.

13. My words no station ever held me to,
Though I live here between two columns true

14. Beside a seat desired by every lord,
Unreached by any hand however broad.

15. When through men creeping ignorance I traced,
I held my peace till deemed by them debased.

16. Strange how the flawed his merit will defend!
Strange how the worthy his flaws will commend!

17. How can birds sleep, with snares spread all around?
Two bows stretched tight to bring them to the ground.

18. My yesterday with me disputes in vain,
My dawns look on me envious disdain.

19. Long have I known time's quirky ways, and so
Care not what spy or spotter I may show.

20. Break off my writing hand, my fingers spare;
Strike dead my soul, my breaths will not forbear.

21. When the night-wandering reviler cried: "Stingy!" to one renowned for acres wide,
And "dull!" to one whom lively wits commend,

22. Or the blind called the sun: "You are hid!"
And the night "Morn! how muddy is your face!"

23. Or Earth made mock of Heaven - stupid disgrace! -
Or planets aped the meteors' vainglory,

24. I said: "O Death, pay me a call, for life's grown hoary"
And: "Gird your loins, my soul! All is decay!"

25. On I went while the night lamented the day
And the star in the west watched the sun retreat.

26. The wind blew from a paddock made of emerald feet,
The sand its body and its stones ankle-chains.

27. The morning zephyrs cast my rein to me
To try my saddle once, then try again.

28. When the horses yearned for the water-hole,
They turned their backs upon the streams and pools. For them the very water seemed to yearn.

29. Two night lounged with the stars for company;
Another lacked all stellar finery.

30. As though the night is of absence, dawn of presence,
reluctant and impatient, was daybreak.

31. My steed carried me through a sea with heaving waves.
It has no beach, except that of the sunrise reflection on it.

32. And in the midst of terrors,
friend was I to bright-sworded warrior who did not die.

33. An ancient Zanji, with his hair gone gray,
His fetters chafing till he could not stray,

34. As though Canopus, lightning-free and tranquil,
Might mean to him attack or overwhelming trial.

35. When Fortune clasps you, fast will you excel;
When her eyes turn from you, tribes will repel,

36. Who once placed you upon their heroes' backs
And drank the sight of you from their scabbards' necks.

37. If enemies should loose their arrows at you,
Back to their curved bows would the missiles fly to.

38. Lances the bravest and keenest defend
And drive their shafts in the donning robes to spend,

39. While athletes' spears rebound intact, undinted,
Shivered against the warriors armoured and glinted.

40. If you'd have glory, choose the middle way;
Extremes do not endure or hold their sway.

41. The full moons lack, though they've no lack appearent;
Crescents may wax, their gaining impermanent