1. By God, the people did not blame a chaste man
Among the family of Layy son of Shammās with purses.

2. Why did you burden me with the glory of your cousin’s son
While Jesus comes out from the signs of Autās?

3. It was not the sin of the hated one that he had no father for you
In a wretch who came at the end of people to compete.

4. I have certainly seen you all, if your riches
Came one day with my wiping and squeezing.

5. And I have willfully praised you to guide you
So there would be for you a wiper and cleaner.

6. And I have seen you in the evening of a young woman
For five whose detention has prolonged my forgetfulness and oblivion.

7. Yet I do not own that your souls were
Like unbelievers, hating my garment and dress.

8. When the inner secrets of your souls became apparent to me
And I had no comforter among you for my wounds,

9. I despaired openly of attaining you
And you will not see one chasing the free man like the ostrich.

10. I am the son of her grandmother in knowledge and experience
So ask Saʿd and you will find me the most knowing of people.

11. It was not the sin of the hated one that he saw a man
With poverty who lived in a desolate place.

12. A neighbor of people who made his dwelling vile
And left him residing between milestones.

13. They filled his villages and their dogs made him flee
And wounded him with fangs and molars.

14. Leave generosity! Do not travel to it!
And sit, for you are the one who eats and dresses.

15. And send to the left, to a perfumed damsel,
And urge her with a wine-skin full of wine.

16. Walk ahead, for most in number
And the noblest in lineage are from the family of Shammās.

17. Whoever does good will not miss its rewards—
Convention does not vanish between God and people.

18. It was not my sin that your hoes broke
From the hands of pure Layys whose origin is firm.

19. They have struggled with you and extracted from their perfection
An inherited glory and nobility not borrowed from others.