1. Despair not of relief though remote the goal
Stay fast and firm and you shall reach your soul

2. In modesty from probing into vice
Lies virtue in this life and paradise

3. Let no man wear deceit as garb to cheat
As mirage duped the lances in defeat

4. For poems their virtues and their faults alike
Are waters both fresh and bitter in their type

5. When a steed volunteers with gifts of dew
Accept, and leave the miser his false pride too

6. Not equal are the noble and the base
One reached the peak, one stumbled in disgrace

7. Who buys fair praise with riches has the gain
Profit and merit both his skill attain

8. Ignorance fears no shame until the end
Folly it is, though gentle be its blend

9. Aid your friend what you can, and curb excess
For gentleness leads on to righteousness

10. With patience one attains in life's quick tide
Though buffeted, like wrestler well tried

11. The best of sires adorns; the worst demeans
One shows wisdom; one shamelessness demeans

12. His word he keeps inviolate and rare
While souls are generous, and souls are spare

13. Life is two drafts: one pure we love to quaff
One bitter poison that we only laugh

14. Time ruins generations without cease
Uprooting all their works in war's caprice

15. It wears the new and frees the hands of youth
Night's darkness comes, then morning's radiant truth

16. Till worn by age he seems molded anew
Like cup its cracks by bees cemented true

17. He owns a cloak his lousy rags to hide
Like shrub whose shoots spring fresh on every side

18. Then death - no refuge can its stroke efface
No shield withstand the fury of its chase

19. By night I've heard birds flying, yet none could see
Their wings by daylight - mystery!

20. No lewd man from his God can cover sin
Though doors and walls conceal him, shutting him in

21. Glances like arrows pierce the heart outright
Yet no wounds show in cheek however white

22. An imp with form of fawn put me to the test
Seduction's snare - I stood above the rest

23. His smile concealed a frost, but setting seemed
Ambergris portions where sweet musk had streamed

24. He sought my company, approved my ways
A confluence of charms in perfect maze

25. I answered with no rudeness, yet aloof -
Chaste rigor foils temptation's weary proof