1. I have indulged excessively in dirges,
So who is there for me if dust becomes my dirge?

2. To mention through me what befell me,
In haste and in grief.

3. I used to be foremost amongst the clubs,
Wearing the adornments of elevation, not of baseness.

4. If I busied men in endeavors,
I strove and attained without effort.

5. And if I summoned people to revelries,
I made my reputation above any arousal.

6. And how many agonies with laments
Were dispelled through me without the heat of grief,

7. And how many desperate pleas
To which I brought succor and relief.

8. How many fine words have continued
At the gatherings which are but fleeting breath.

9. Wonders have been accomplished by me and passed away,
With all kinds of praise I bared my secrets.

10. The traveling bands sang through my verse
In the desert plains and atop the sand dunes.

11. And I educated the jurisprudents
As well as the owners of furniture.

12. And I have extolled many elegies,
Praising the living and the inanimate dead.

13. And if the cavalry of death befell them,
We are with them among the crawling dead.

14. In truth, were I to cry and not delight
My eyes after them in any consolation.

15. Beware! Death I find moves quickly
Swifter than the blinking of an eye;

16. While we, oblivious to death,
Do works in this world with delusion -

17. Works for the next enduring life
With a world having wicked hopes,

18. We cherished it with wayward hearts
And bellies whose food is carrion.

19. Hopes in all its gatherings fade away
And works at its ending rot away.

20. May God have mercy on those who have passed away
As their redemption from this world's tumult

21. They were content with its basic living until
They passed away as if mere insects.

22. By your life, they kept with it and remained
Then divorced it with the utterance of "three times".

23. They gathered for it no flitting wealth,
Nor resented the plenty of inheritance.

24. They looked not fondly at its lightning,
Nor were they enamored by its bracelets or anklets.

25. They drank not from its wines in cups
Nor from its decor in goblets.

26. Congratulations! They sought and found
Their purpose, a bliss without fatigue.

27. Oh would that I knew how my state shall be
When the earth spurs me to resurrect!

28. Would that I knew what my state will be
In a distant, lonesome, dreary tomb underneath the soil!

29. If you pictured me after three days
You would loathe me even before the third.

30. O Lord I cry out desperately -
Save me, You are best of saviors.

31. Your prayers and peace upon the Prophet
Worthy of praise and elegy.