1. Who will help me and answer my cry?
All my friends have abandoned me.

2. I am alone, with no family—
No son, daughter, or brother have I.

3. I am as the leaves that complained—
Friends and chicks they have lost.

4. I am as the crops and grasses—
Like locusts despoiled and crushed.

5. With sprinkles do I weep,
And with downpours shall I sob.

6. The lessons of fate and ruin—
I have heard them all and am struck.

7. The delight of my eye beyond it
Is a divide—what divide!

8. Great is this calamity that weakens
All bone, brittle and cracking.

9. Master of the Trumpet soon
The time comes—so sound it!

10. With its moist breeze let me breathe
To revive and refresh.

11. My neighbor, Ridwan, was not
Pleased with me, aloof and cold.

12. Once providing, now miserly
In his old age and senility.

13. Have you seen youth come
Bearing the wisdom of age?

14. It humbled lions roaring
And buzzards shrieking.

15. Had it remained, it would be
Firmly rooted in knowledge.

16. Say more, my mouth—as you wish
Pages upon pages transcribed.

17. Deaf he was, and to my call
He paid no heed or care.

18. Wrongly did the healer rebuke—
Such is the critic’s share.

19. God judges, O you Complainer,
So if you can, unravel!

20. He created His servants,
And if He wills, He destroys.

21. Every life has its time
In a dated book inscribed.