1. I seek God's forgiveness for my shortcomings and lapses
And any fleeting thoughts that crossed my mind

2. I spent my life learning what I never mastered
And of what use is knowledge amongst the ignorant?

3. My asceticism increased when I came to know them
So I don't grieve over status or wealth

4. I've tied my determination against seeking
So my steeds and camels are to be praised

5. I consider my sincerest hopes as deception
When people cling to my hopes

6. And I owe gratitude to contentment
For gratitude is the best reverence and veneration

7. I paired it with unearned prosperity
And chastity between extravagance and scarcity

8. The inheritance of a people was enough for me after them
So interpretations of speculations on prohibited and permitted

9. The spring quenched a generous spring whose pouring rain
Falls with every smooth-tailed gray stallion

10. And it especially rained on a fleeting portion of its blessings
With a cold drink like wine flowing down

11. So it has helped us to be ascetic with ease
And enriched me against hardship and wandering

12. I gave my body rest so its parts wouldn't toil
Though the likes of me had damaged it with greed

13. And I didn't make my isolation reason to seek money
When people preoccupy themselves with their tasks

14. They spoke beautifully but rarely acted
And I made my words consistent with my actions

15. And my cousin disagreed with my opposition
So found in me no dismissal

16. Be however you want, aloof or sociable
For you were created without an uncle or aunt

17. And spare me your quarreling or blaming
For that is the excess of sayings and words

18. And a party the noble brought together
Despite the changing of times and states

19. From everyone who admits to evil, feeling no need
And seeking the company of those with base natures

20. A house of schemes though it's vacant
And a place of evil though it's empty

21. They turned against me and their dogs startled me
But I don't care about the pattern of fading ruins

22. The truth is evident so know who argues it
And leave the whisperings of ideas and words

23. And enmity has reasons, the most apparent being
In them, divergence of motives and forms

24. And people vary though one image envelops them
It's the compatibility between water and tools

25. Blessed is God! Is there any trace left for good
That a successor pursues where a predecessor once trod?

26. Has a sword realized that its sheath
Is in a scabbard whose house allows no visitors?

27. Or does a sword know from its mines
To inspire towards ruins and vestiges?

28. O you who tirelessly raised the palace
Lower it upon you, for the lofty partition

29. And I'm amazed by the monks, for they were true
To asceticism, abstaining from slaughtering lambs and calves

30. Your sustenance suffices you from what you store
And what protects you from home and cloak

31. They did not wrong the beast of the land and sufficed
With latent desires in their mouths they ignored

32. So they prohibited the easier hunting through effort
If only they knew of the hunting of a lurking killer

33. And the ordeal of slaughter inspired in their tongues
Gentleness and respite for the slaughterers

34. Or do they believe that the living feel nothing?
Nonsense! That is but the rambling of fools

35. How abundant is ignorance in immorality and asceticism
And those who laugh at words and deeds

36. I withdrew into solitude and my wisdom roamed the land
So my thoughts and persona remained unmoving

37. And I'm not confident in the affection of my brothers
So how can my enviers and blamers feel safe?

38. So listen to my words and understand what I mean
And seek the best in purposes and examples

39. And make my sermons a light you illuminate with
For they are lamps not locked up

40. And spare my praise if my personality carries me
For there is no benefit to soil when a stream flows in it