1. A despair that tries to comfort me,
I would be comforted if only hearts were consoling,

2. I am but passion which is my way,
And my religion, and love is my nature,

3. Is love but a passion that stirs,
The heart's fervor or a raging zeal?

4. I shortened my sigh upon my zeal,
And let flow my flowing tears,

5. I love the beloved with love of eternity,
And I yearn even if I fall into an abyss,

6. If the knot of passion comes undone,
I tie myself to rapture and its burdens,

7. It suffices me that I therein sleep,
Too dear for time are my peers,

8. Shall I remain in vain, fearing marriages,
And nothing is feared but them?

9. If a thought is disturbed in the mind,
I tie it with some of my entrails,

10. And if time frowns askance,
I laugh then cry over my enemies,

11. It suffices me that in this time,
I quenched time, and it quenched me,

12. Days have come between me and pursuits
And changed my state,

13. It matters not that my teeth whitened,
Fewer yet my enviers multiplied,

14. They envied me my excellence among all,
What if time were to enrich me?

15. Shall I not sell this life for a death,
That makes loss seem gain?

16. O my friend, is a drop in a vessel,
That moistens life's crumbs enough?

17. I implore you by God, does a worn cloak,
Disgrace its wearer when bare?

18. God apportioned the world’s provision,
And stinted the provision in portions,

19. Yet still I thank Him praising,
And slay hopes with patience,

20. And does it avail me that I am a poet,
Whose verses harm and benefit?

21. A man of letters, yet the livelihood of man of letters eludes me,
So woe to my literature!

22. After my share of the man of letter's luck soured,
Shall I remain, and a life of contentment mine?

23. And before me plenty was attained by the wounded,
And Hudhayl exposed in the desert,

24. My only shame is that I,
Trod the path of my forefathers,

25. Had fate been just in its portioning,
It would have emulated my ancestors,

26. I am a man of valor from resolute men,
Though frailty has touched me,

27. How long shall I suppress my anguish,
And how long wink at my sorrows?

28. How long hide my secrets,
Until I openly declare them?

29. I must either attain my hopes through the spear,
Or death, which is better for me,

30. Or fully avenge the Exalted,
Or would that vengeance itself be my judge!

31. I will unleash it like the snarling dogs of war,
Scenting the odor of the departing caravan,

32. If it is roused among the dunes, they would think it
The fierce prowling lion,

33. Foam flows over its jowls,
So it gulps down the flowing spittle,

34. And from every long proud neck,
It is dyed with the lofty blood,

35. A night like your darkness, O FATALITY,
Its horrifying shadows cut,

36. I rode it against its will,
And wronged it, pulling its forelock,

37. If the leader of the gleaming white herd wails,
I refuse the white herd's regret,

38. And whoever converses with the radiant moon,
Is not pleased by its radiant companion,

39. Leave off hoping, O deceiver,
And watch over my ruins with your eyes,

40. Refrain from matters that are my sphere,
For in matters my hand casts justly,

41. I appeared and I have a visible stage,
A witness in the land of the nomads,

42. I cannot reconcile two things in one being:
The wrongdoing of my people and their kindness,

43. I want to reform the honor of the villain,
And who can mend the crack in the vessel?

44. Some people's honor belongs not to them,
And my honor is demolishing my money,

45. I am not comforted by drinking wine,
Or loving a boy or singing girl,

46. I cock my ear to the clanging of swords,
When the blade sings its song to me,