1. My eyes saw a wretched, gloomy man
Lying on the ground in the morning, his clothes tattered

2. Crouching on his knees, his ribs protruding
His back hunched, his youth gone

3. So I was roused to sorrow and grief
Like fire kindles a flint stone

4. And I went from verse to tears
For verse and tears express the pain of the afflicted

5. I stood over him and called out
Hoping for some response

6. O you lying in a grave
On a hillside where the torrents flow

7. O you fallen on your face
Under the canopy of sky over dust

8. O you buried in your grave
Like a hedgehog fallen upon by dogs

9. Be gentle in your grief, do not assume
This is merely fog

10. Does sleep now deceive us
Or are you tough, unyielding?

11. Rocks do not act as you do
And rocks are hard and stubborn

12. Are you anything but a mortal like us
Or are you a jinn relieved of your veil?

13. No, just a poor man who found no mercy
In the houses of the wealthy with domed roofs

14. Their bellies are filled and purses overflowing
While yours is empty, devoid of food

15. Their sleep is sweet, their senses calm
While you lie anxious in a desolate place

16. Fate has crushed you in a grave
Beside a hill, like a folded book

17. Where you have stayed all day in
Distress, poverty, misery and melancholy

18. Until the time of nightfall came
And the wings of night spread like a raven

19. I bid farewell, tears flowing from your eyes
The wakefulness in your eyes a melted bead

20. And you curled up like a bow, its string cut
Famous for shooting arrows

21. Head bowed to the earth in sorrow
And sorrow humiliates necks

22. As if your night were the life of a man
Who warned his people but they had no shelter

23. As if the wakefulness in your eyes
Were eyes watching over us, guarding every door

24. I saw in your figure something which startled me
And caused me grief and turmoil

25. After I was alarmed in the morning
When flavor pleased me and drink was sweet

26. I swore there is no comfort in life
Except what comes from me, a mirage

27. Oh people! The people standing
Or coming and going around hopes, how fickle!

28. And the self judges them so it does not
Cease calling them to every fault

29. But when I think on their schemes
By God, it is an amazing thing

30. A scheme resembling truth in its making
Yet falsehood from them mimics right

31. If not for guidance from some guided people
I swear there would be nothing in people but wolves

32. Is it time for me to assail? For staying
Despite myself in this wasteland vexes me

33. How can life be sweet among a people
Who have denied the needy even scraps?

34. It is as if they have no covenant
And no belief in the Reckoning

35. O you who hoard, come to
Aid the poor, for poverty brings ruin

36. And has afflicted your brothers, overwhelming them
For poverty destroys all things