1. And I endure the sorrows of life
Some of which overwhelm even the forbearing

2. My path is all rocky, yet I
Stumble over pebbles on the carpet

3. And how many dear friends have I not visited
While yearning for an intimate friend

4. Had I been able to connect with my family
And companions, rather, had I sought out my foes

5. Would I not have rejoiced in a companion when walking
While I was shunned by the iniquitous?

6. As if, because of my despair over my youth
I mimic the gait of an infant weaning

7. I carried my staff leaning on it
Just for the sake of vainglory in ancient times

8. It could not heal the weakness of my leg
Even if it were the staff of Moses the Kalim

9. Can a staff made of green wood
Heal a leg made of decay?

10. And many a hypocrite to me during my walk
I feel his hidden stab in the heart

11. I disdain when a free man
Extends to me a kind hand, my heart narrows, though gentle!

12. And I panic when a lovely-faced mistress
Replaces affection with love

13. And I hear her call me uncle if she coos
With a voice weaker than rumbling thunder

14. If my leg is weak, still I walk
Only on a straight path

15. It suffices me that my weak leg
Enabled me to range between Zamzam and the Ruins

16. And it suffices me that illness afflicts my body
While my morals and resolve remain intact

17. And if my steps are short, many a short step
Flows from a generous nature

18. Do not the servants of God walk gently
As stated in the wise Remembrance?

19. Do not rabbits and deer mimic
The gait of the vicious lion?

20. It is not the flaw of my leg or ankle,
By your father’s life, but my and my decrepit old age

21. When the head grows young all ailments
Exacerbate the condition of the ailing limb

22. My joints inflame more from the needle
As if the serum were made of poisons

23. And they said: gray hair is wisdom; I said no,
The one with a sound mind has a sound body

24. And from my obsession with the blackness of my hair
I have frequented the dusky night

25. And I have not seen an ailment exhaust people
Ascending to the stars like the ailment of graying hair

26. I despair of mortals, and place my trust in Him
Who will return life to the decaying bone

27. I spent a lifetime detesting every weakness
So how have I been afflicted with lasting weakness?!

28. It suffices me that I lived long enough
To hear the cawing of crows and the hooting of owls

29. And that I became the desire of every lowly
Base person with a vile cheek

30. And the noble is not more aggrieved by anything
Than the enmity of the ignoble

31. The shoe of the noble refuses to
Touch the brow of the despicable slave

32. So let not my companions frown at my silence
Nor let my enemies marvel at my sullenness

33. The ugliest thing the eye can see is debased
Nature stemming from a despicable character

34. And a pony mimicking the absent lion
And a monkey laying claim to the crumbs of a gazelle

35. One who wields a pen overshadowed by the axe
Boasts of prose and verse

36. Some people with chapped faces
Competing with ice in frigidity

37. Some people when stoned are more deserving
Than every outcast devil

38. Stand erect, my life, or slouch
It's equal: whether you stand or slouch

39. If you live on into a new generation
You will be in it like an orphan

40. It suffices you to see a cheeky lad
Glance at you askance one day

41. When the temples of the lion gray
His prey attacks him in assault

42. We have reversed death though it was on our necks
To cure the incurable illness

43. When medicine goes bankrupt, death becomes
A remedy for what accumulated tumors could not cure

44. By your life, death may be kinder
To the living than a wretched mother

45. And I have not seen a guest like the specter of death
Encamping on the soil of the aggrieved noble