1. O ruler, the faces yield to your might
And the necks bow down before your majesty

2. You come and the drums stumble over you, sometimes
Even the heralds and your mount stumble over you

3. And when you travel as a comfortable ride for others
Their ears and sights are the saddles and stirrups

4. Or whenever your procession goes or comes
The time trembles and the horizons clamor

5. The multitudes gape in awe, and if you allowed others
The abodes and markets would fly to you

6. Such deference, if pretense brought it about
And hypocrisy exalted the status of rulers

7. If not for your kindness, only shackles and halters
Would celebrate you

8. For you, every great wrongdoing
The pens and papers acquiesce to

9. Oppression is religion, tyranny is law
Betrayal is covenant, and desire is pact

10. The criminals pay you their money
While God watches and blood is shed

11. A dignitary tramples the heads while a disgraced man
Is finished off by the firmness of his rights

12. The one with the weak pillar calls you for aid
And you falter for a time and the legs gives way

13. And when the governors indulge excessively in feasts
You are the swiftest steed in running to them

14. You are the knowledgeable one, describe for us the rule of passion
And the anguish of the heart, how can it be borne

15. Two adversaries disturb the beds, from you both
There is anger and conflict in the dark of night

16. The hearts of the righteous are tranquil, and have not envied
Above the mattress, your throbbing heart

17. Which wakefulness drives out the creeping of sleep
When it senses a swelling turmoil and overflowing distress

18. That was so, then affection and harmony
Returned to you both after the quarrel

19. And when sins upon a man accumulate
The soul and morals become accustomed to them

20. The worst of peoples in station of life
Is a people led by the ignorant

21. Rule in the reformers' view is adequacy
And custom to the people of piety is entitlement

22. And I see hypocrisy as the nature of the peoples
The astute are aware of the knotty cure of their malady

23. The hypocrite is possessed by life and knows not
That the life is bestowed by the Creator

24. He possessed all creations and it was ordained
By His right hand the fates and the provisions

25. And He dispensed among them justice and freedom
So there is no injustice or enslavement

26. The obstinate soul does not then outpace
A day, nor does pity liberate it

27. The shackles appear and our skins bristle
And ignorance is a tight and firm bond