1. What in life is dearer to man
Than a book that refines the mind

2. And guides you to the path of righteousness
And consoles you when grief binds

3. With jokes that torment and trouble the heart
It is more useful in solitude than chatter of friends

4. I wish I had spent my youth
Completing and reading every chapter

5. Alas I wasted my life
In vain play and drink

6. Among singing girls and wine
While ignoring the life of purpose and duty

7. My conscience records everything I say and do
What will be my fate after death

8. I know not
If my book is in my right hand on Judgment Day

9. Oh my fortune! For I will have succeeded in my worldly life and faith
In life I dyed doubt with the color of certainty

10. And when the Caller of the Resurrection calls "Oh People of the Right!"
I will say "Here I am, read this, my account and debts

11. In it is what I forwarded in the world of noble deeds"
So he will call "Enter him into the shades and fountains"

12. Would that I had forwarded what would honor me and make me safe
Freeing me of the confusion of Judgment and ending my doubts and suspicions

13. Oh, if my book comes in my left hand
What will happen, but I cannot be concerned

14. If the world tightens around me and grief tires my patience
I do not care, my book is subject to my command

15. In it is what prevents my examples from rhymed prose and poetry
It is enough for me that through it I live every age

16. Oh life of the soul, do not distance yourself from it by a handspan
My life without a book is not worth a quarter of zero

17. It is my teacher who taught me how to chant poetry
And freed me of the shackles binding my work and thoughts

18. So I have become today like a bird in my destiny and freedom
I do not care about clouds or blowing wind

19. I am free in my singing and chanting
And in chanting alone is my solace