1. Say to the judge of wickedness and retreat
Supporter of folly, pillar of the wicked

2. Who has become a ship of ignorance
With horns on him like tent pegs

3. I complain to you of a wife who made me
Absent among all people

4. She made me long for what I hoped for
So today I am thinking while waiting

5. I was absent until even if they slapped me
I would say stop, by Allah, slapping my neighbor

6. So my day from stupidity is night
At night is like day equally

7. My head turned from my house door so by Allah
Inform me, my masters, where is my house

8. She possessed me, a blunder and blunderer
When she increased with the tambourine, my blundering

9. Where is the brain of my brain
And where is the donkey's brain equally

10. May Allah forgive me, maybe I went to the sea
To warm myself by the fire from the cold

11. And I undressed to swim in the waves
Thinking it was the flowing stream

12. And how often I bandaged my leg for a dream
That made me walk on nails

13. And how often I pulled out a molar
After it pained, the utmost of pains

14. So I pulled out after my great effort
And exertion, my buttons

15. And a millstone I sought to grind but still
Straying, I circle around

16. And I call out, tired of trotting
I wonder, where is the end of my race

17. I choose to sit instead of strive
But I walk without choosing

18. I forget I forgot so my guide need not
Fear spreading my secrets

19. I am a bucket of blunders with what
I called out of folly and clamor

20. And how often in water I saw an old man
Bowing in love like a pole

21. An evil old man, white-bearded but
His dark face like tar

22. Most resembling me, and a fox
May resemble its brother at the butcher's

23. He shouted like me, I shouted back stubbornly
"Shout!" I cried like a cry

24. I was gripped by fear and called
"I'm not a harborer of thieves in dens!"

25. Nothing angered me but that he
Hissed like me and slandered like my slander

26. Where do you moor and where is my coat of mail
Umm Amroo, with my sharp sword

27. If I die, I'll be a martyr in battle
Or live, I'm the bravest of the brave

28. Then I struck that hated one with blows
With my sword until he fell shattered

29. The water flowed so I was wary or else
I'd follow the traces in the current

30. I'm like a cat in my slinking, and if
You single me out, I'm vicious in skirmishing

31. I'm like a sheep, horned, and if
You drop my spit I'm vilest in filth

32. I'm facilitating what is led by omitting
The ya and ra, the state of poverty

33. If I went to a doctor for treatment
I wouldn't exceed the herbalist's booth

34. After I was with my intelligence aware
My door was made by the carpenter

35. I guessed the eggs before they cracked them
The white was on the yolk

36. And with my eye I looked at a glass jug
That was with me or made of pottery

37. And much of me despite my white hair
Memorizes these things like little children