1. If only my feelings could help me,
I would mock the gray hair on my head.

2. No one blames me if I am
Angry with my past days.

3. My affairs today in my homeland
Flow not as I wished,

4. But rather they flow conversely.
My sun has begun to set on it

5. Pale yellow like flowers.
If my past had been good,

6. It would not have brought misery to my day.
I blame myself, for if I were grateful,

7. There would be no misery in my gray hair.
There is no defect in my gray hair,

8. Rather, the defect is in myself.
I composed my poetry from a feeling

9. I distilled from my five senses.
I planted it in my enemy, the Tigris,

10. But its people did not appreciate my planting.
It is as if when they uprooted the best

11. That I planted, they uprooted my molar.
I was an honest partner between us

12. In grief, wedding, and celebration.
I hate my people and their tents,

13. The prejudice of the ignorant and zealous.
They hold the free man accountable in his matter

14. Even for a rumor or delusion.
They sold their world for the paltry price

15. Of the ignorance they have.
And they finished off minds that soared,

16. Blinding them, though death is in blindness.
They gathered except with the intention

17. To fight wisdom with foolishness.
I do not care if the people gather

18. Against me all mankind and jinn.
By day they seem to be

19. Angels in the presence of holiness.
But when night comes they are wolves,

20. And night is the time of treacherous wolves.
They incline only toward their own kind,

21. Each race to its own race.
Their ignorance is sedition

22. Like fire beneath dry timber.
Their stables must be swept,

23. For the ground will not be cleaned without sweeping.
By God, the people are in need

24. Of a wise and adept perfume seller,
Of a learned doctor who knows

25. How to treat by feeling the pulse,
For there is no renaissance without freedom,

26. It is like a building without a foundation.
I despaired of my people until I almost

27. Killed myself in despair.
How many knotty problems I untied

28. After scrutinizing and studying them,
I proved them after purifying them

29. To be sparkling truths.
I saw the fire on Mount Sinai

30. And the night that casts terror into the soul.
So I approached slowly, drawing near

31. And did not fear being struck down by lightning.
How many people came to me angry

32. Whose nature I could not discern at first,
Until the light fell on their faces

33. And dispelled the ambiguity.
And blaming my love of the world which

34. I inhabit, but is there shame in love?
My world, I do not ever leave its youth,

35. For in its land is my planting,
In its night are my stars,

36. And in its day is my sun.
If I live, through it is my transportation,

37. And if I die, in it is my burial.
How often its stars have spoken to me

38. In old age though they are mute,
And how often its sun has risen

39. Inspiring poetry in my soul,
And how often its morning breeze

40. Has awakened me from stupor with its whispers,
Reminding me of my days of youth

41. When I was in play and companionship,
When I and desires led me

42. And I would wake not as I slept.
It is curious that I did not forget it

43. Though cares of the soul are unforgettable,
And today it meets me as I strive

44. For my happiness but find only my misery.
Fate has long imprisoned me in distress—

45. What does fate want from imprisoning me?
Let it give me from its wine bitterness

46. And suffice to fill my cup.
The sin is my sin, that I chose

47. Asceticism from myself though I am no priest.
Who will give me a brimming cup of bitter wine?

48. For thoughts are fire and it is in my head.
I strive for my happiness outside myself

49. Though my happiness is within myself.