1. Suffering crept out of its lair
And sickness coiled in its burrow

2. Its chill blanketed the night with its chill
And its roast smothered the heat with its heat

3. A vagrant seeking refuge in his worries
When the birds take refuge in their nests

4. He has not tasted the sweetness of a kiss on his cheek
Nor the tenderness of a touch in his hair

5. His mother did not cradle him in her chest
Nor did a father croon him in his lap

6. His soul has been patient with what it contains
And awaits the promised reward for its patience

7. His belly is worn out, shrouded by agony
And the people of the land sleep heedless of his plight

8. And his face conveys despair with a glance
That hatred casts upon the days of his life

9. Time has scarred him, from its sharpness
Are those wrinkles, and from its claws

10. God has etched a line on his cheek
A clear mark of misery in its verse

11. The light has faded from his eyes
And the glint of companionship vanished from his smile

12. And people - where are the people? Woe to him!
O God's mercy upon His creation!

13. He drags his feet slowly
Like a worn out camel from its pulling

14. If he sleeps, you see him as a mass
Drawing his legs up to his throat

15. His groans are trapped in his heart
And his sorrows choked in his chest

16. The tears in his eyes have dried in their pits
What good did tears do him in his bitterness?

17. They flowed from him like a river over a morsel
Yet he returned like one seeking water in a river

18. He cannot find refuge even if he wanted it
Time has directed him to his grave

19. There he will rest, calm and safe
From the disgrace of living and its hardship

20. For in the heart of the grave lies many a slumber
More bent than time's injustice and forgetfulness

21. The weariness of man in his senses
And the misery of man from his thoughts

22. How can purity be expected of a being
Whose particles are saturated with blemish?

23. He did not name the angels in their faces
Nor did he desire beasts in their habitats

24. He sought sincere wisdom in his quest
Yet obtained from it nothing but its rind

25. He strives without knowing what benefits him
Whether he strives vigorously or to his detriment

26. I have believed in God, yet how many scholars
Has the unseen overwhelmed in its mystery?

27. God is in a child overcome by poverty
With dark sorrows and dusty rags

28. In deep darkness, his face radiant
As if he were Jonah in his sea

29. While the people on shore, heedless
Or mocking, persist in their ridicule

30. And the waves like wolves around the lad
Blocking the horizon with their howling

31. He called out but called only once
Until the sea engulfed him in its depths

32. You'd think him a child, but if
Your eyes discerned, you'd find no trace of his youth

33. It's as if he were doubt, when it walks
Or what the sleeping sees in their nightmare

34. Hunger has overwhelmed him, so in his tears
Is what hunger has done, and in his cry

35. Woe to a palm stuck to the dirt
And bloodied by misery from its scraping

36. What would kindness lose by returning it
As a gift of limbs in gratitude?

37. What would kindness lose by returning it
As the sweetness of tongues in thanks?

38. How many smiles has a benefactor sent
More radiant than a meadow and its flowers?

39. And a morsel that has satiated the hungry
Tipping the scale in their favor in the reckoning?

40. And a favor that has been like wings
By which good repute has spread from its mention?

41. And a tear shed in compassion
Purer than treasure from its essence?

42. Paradise does not bloom except by what
The weeping sheds for their sins

43. If man knew his reward
He would not begrudge his soul its wage

44. Little wealth remains after him
While wealth leaves despite its abundance

45. The whiteness of a man's hands among his people
Is more precious than ivory and its yellowness

46. And the free man does not enjoy in his abundance
Until the youths attain what befits their merit

47. And people are like water, so from the shallow
And from the deep, I struggled in its measurement

48. It is not one who spends from his ease
Like one who spends from his hardship

49. How many coins have been thrown in his prison
Yet he did not attain pardon in his lifetime?

50. He did not see the beauty of dawn in its sun
Nor the splendor of night in its moon

51. He craves the sting of hunger in his stomach
And unleashes sighs from its separation

52. And wealth is like wine, if it runs wild
The expanses of earth tighten from its evil

53. When will the mind awaken from its slumber?
Or wealth sober up from its drunkenness?

54. When will I see the soul freed
From the shackles of money and its captivity?

55. When will I see love like the dawn’s glow
With each person swimming in their purity?

56. When will I see people purified
Of the wolf's evil and its betrayal?

57. A branch's kinship to its origin
And a flower's smile towards its rain

58. And a gentle kindness that did not leave
A heart that conceals fire in its stone

59. Status is not envied for its money
Nor is poverty blamed for its lack

60. How many astray in Egypt, O its abundance!
From a number that mocks its count

61. A nation's treasure is its children
What use was the Nile with its reserves?

62. What use was the Nile of an arm
Quick to break more than a twig?

63. And legs weaker than a whisper
And the morning breeze in its passing

64. And a girl whose dawn is her night
And a boy who strays in his youth

65. Egypt discarded him, lost and confused
So he parted seeking vengeance from Egypt

66. Plunged in sins up to his throat
Swallowing a mouthful of its bitterness

67. Taken by the night and passing a hand
In the night's frivolity and its cunning

68. How narrow his time felt from his misery
And narrow from anger at his time

69. Thorn in the throat of the ransomed homeland
And a prick like a blade in its back

70. The school of decadence and wasted influence
The devil established it in his den

71. When morals fall, pillars collapse
And everything collapses thereafter

72. Who reforms the family reforms through it
What corruption ruined in its region

73. A father's crime is discarding his son
In hardship, whether ease or strain

74. The she-wolf does not abandon her cubs
Nor does the dog stray from its lair

75. A home is a desert when you do not find
Childhood frolicking in its courtyard

76. So punish the fathers if they fall short
The disobedient must be deterred

77. And rescue the child, for what is his sin
If the father is foolish in his loss?

78. Raise him, and he will grow good fruit
The farmer does not despair of his seed

79. And teach him righteous work
To support him if he struggles with his burden

80. Raise him in the countryside, perhaps the villages
Will reform what went awry in his affair

81. The soul is a mirror, and the sapling of growth
Will be purified or tainted from its root

82. Perhaps the whisper of the branch in his ear
Will make him forget what he harbored of resentment

83. Perhaps the breaths of the meadow's breeze
In his chest will cool the embers within

84. The Nile calls for help seeking aid
So quicken your steps to its victory

85. Kindness does not vanish into the depths
Nor does musk cease its diffusion