1. This is my book on the perfection of Salama
In it, I explain my state in summary

2. There is worry, poverty, and fleeting life
And separation from homelands and loss of loved ones

3. O my brothers! If I am truthful, then you
Are brothers of the days, not brothers of mine

4. Away with the hopes that I pinned on you
For they strayed on the path and were lost

5. Shall I be absent from Aleppo three months
Without you writing me a single word?

6. It's as if I have wronged you
To deserve such great estrangement

7. You observed neither the sanctity of morals
Nor the right of brotherhood, nor the reins of companionship

8. It's as if, when you cobble together
An excuse, it will resemble a well-known need

9. You'll say, "We were busy with the siege, and after you
What remained of the dignitaries of the state"

10. And you'd be truthful - so by what logic
Were the merchants' letters allowed during that repentance?

11. You failed to do what they intended
Away with one inferior to them in resolve

12. Staying Christian seemed good to you, so you expected
After fasting, talk of my baptism

13. If I wanted, I'd flee there from you
For I wouldn't intend anywhere but Constantinople

14. And I'd write to you when I went
From the Monastery of St. Romanos in Rome

15. O son of the pretender - and the speech is all
Inclined toward you, for you're the head of the band

16. You provoked it, yet absolved yourself of its consequences
That is the work of an old man of villainy

17. For God's sake, tell me why
You disregarded my covenant with you and my will

18. Did you forget my companion whom you brought
And whose service you made as if an intimate affair?

19. Those devoted do not share thus
In the rule of affection and privacy between them

20. Be as you wish, for your nearness after this
Is the limit of hope and the apex of desire

21. As for your brother Abu al-'Ala, I still
Recognize in him the obscenity of companionship

22. I used to, when present, not ask him
About me - so how could he be in absence?

23. When will he yearn, still hunkered down
In intoxication and sprawled out in drunkenness?

24. For your drunken companion, the excuse is clear
To me - so I don't blame him for estrangement

25. The sin is mine for what he gained
For I cast off manliness among the Kufan merchants

26. And of the wonders is that Muhammad
While ancient of ties with the deaconry

27. Forgets my love - so he doesn't pass through his mind
Busy with that rabble of the market

28. O barefoot one, they went to
The knight and the silent youth

29. And the burden's reward is upon you - so lead it, for
Among the people of the direction there's no dispute

30. And by the right of a debt upon you, it
If you desire it, is most binding upon you

31. Give greetings to Abu al-Hasan and tell him
This estrangement is enmity to the Shia

32. I will be silent with what you've obstinately done
And relate what I endured from you as a jest

33. And I will make you sit for the case between us
On Ashura in the east

34. Until I stir up for you from it a tribulation
That makes you forget the day of the Sufi raid

35. Leave this and tell me - you, son of a benefactor
While estrangement like yours is the essence of ordeals

36. Your ministry in which you placed me
Was like sublime service

37. The crow cawed in it, so it scattered our unity
Fate in which disasters were mute

38. It wasn't your right to be bored - rather
The date of your connection was from the siege of the citadel

39. I remembered you in the punishment of Heraclius
And the mountains of Nicea and the snow of highlands

40. And your baker friend is busy
With the concealed tale behind him

41. Perplexed, seeking a place to be alone in
And that is the essence of ordeals

42. Give greetings to the jurist and tell him
While he is prepared to repel every calamity

43. Far be it from you to describe affection and its people
While your love is entirely by force

44. It wouldn't have harmed you to send a greeting
And write five lines in a note

45. Does the garden thrive with the like of this?
Or the beauty of the abode increase in the plains?

46. Let Abu al-Hasan the minister's friend Hamdi know
For that esteemed deed

47. I received from him one letter
Dated halfway through Dhu al-Qi'dah

48. I found it containing mention of me without
News to somewhat soothe a bit of homesickness

49. As if, my friend, I am busy
With the paths of trade, compelled by my livelihood

50. I didn't want from him except mention of the news
Of the group, apart from the state of the town

51. O people, why have I become burdensome
After that protected intention?

52. I reckon your longing for me is like
The Jews' longing for the time of tribulation

53. After you I witnessed wondrous things in multitudes
And I saw every trifle and oddity

54. And I met a people - what's Abu al-Fadl ibn
Al-Anbari but inferior to them in meanness?

55. If the messenger of the Gospel gathered to them
The Gospel, it wouldn't increase them from wickedness

56. I recite hadith to them, but it's as if I
Have become like them in commanding force