1. My friend, my troubles have grown
And my plans have narrowed

2. I forgave my young friends in their youth
And did not blame when they erred

3. How long will time always deceive me
Making my life miserable?

4. It wrongs me unjustly and harshly
And troubles my once happy life

5. I used to be composed in the past
But fate has betrayed my composure

6. To a home that shelters nothing
Except my own disgrace

7. I stay going to a home
Like my grave though my burial awaits

8. When a friend wishes to visit me
Driven by desire though I live far

9. I spread out a mat for him
From my door to the courtyard

10. And prepare his dinner
With words that appeal to his appetite

11. Though pain weighs down my arm
My sickness overcomes it

12. I rise every morning hoping
God will increase my misery

13. What house have I sought
Where my argument moves the gatekeeper?

14. If I vie until I die
I enter and my brain leaves me

15. People shun me when I reach them
Though my blindness fell long ago

16. If they help me up later
I quickly follow their rising

17. If they ready their horses for riding
I ready my knees for walking

18. Among people's camels are their boys
While only my uncle's son is in my company

19. I have no boy to summon
Except one whose father is my aunt's brother

20. I was once handsome, pleasing to the eye
Yet now my nature has turned ugly

21. My cheeks are chapped from starvation's drought
And my eyelids swollen close

22. Worry has bent me over
Till I resemble my grandmother

23. Once combs would break in my thick hair
But now I am balder than a baby bird

24. O Lord, the white cheeks of youth
Used to yearn for my company

25. Now they turn away when they see
My gray hairs, angered by my baldness

26. Still, I told her one day when I hardened my resolve to part:
"Forget what is past, my aunt

27. For my beauty has faded
What remains is a tall, wide, bony frame

28. Except my heart which grief has drowned
And made idle in constant sorrow"

29. I owned a farm in Tikrit
That gave crops, but now my only crop is grief

30. They raided my sesame harshly
Advancing until my wheat was gone

31. So I still resent all who
With their tricks eliminated my bounty