1. I live among people who harbor enmity towards me
I wish I could appease them, if appeasement would work

2. And I seek the favor of those who hate me
While between favor and spite lie great distances

3. The nights pass quickly and are gone
But their enmity does not dissipate

4. A group shows me loyalty in their eyes
Though their hearts conceal other intentions

5. Evil is their innate disposition, though
Their hearts are preoccupied with other matters

6. I placate them with polite words
Yet their hearts reject gentleness

7. Great lies are told about me
Almost causing the heavens to collapse

8. They insult me, but I refuse to accept it
Noble souls do not accept degradation

9. Whenever they plot an evil scheme
Their vile souls readily accept it

10. Is there equality between one who accepts humiliation
And one who does not tolerate disgrace?

11. I advise them, if only they would listen
But the dead do not hear advice

12. I show them the way of truth in my advice
As a mirror clearly reflects an image before you

13. By chance, some ignorant ones have attained
High position and fortune on the ladder

14. But contradiction remains between position and truth
While between proof and luck persist contradiction

15. They brought terrible slander against me
By which treason almost destroyed me

16. But I do not fear death or dread doom
My thread of life is not yet cut

17. If not for the hopes I still nurture
To attain them, I would welcome death

18. The prospect of death gladdens my heart
As a lover rejoices to meet his beloved

19. How much intrigue they have plotted against me
How much false testimony they have borne against me

20. But I will not repay them in kind
For slander is the weapon of the weak

21. Oh Baghdad, you are the first home
Where the joys of youth delighted me

22. When life was verdant, appearing to my eyes
With a purity that sorrow cannot resemble

23. But when the days of play and youth passed
And people of mischief confronted me with necessities

24. I found them either a hypocritical enemy
Whose face belies the feelings in his heart

25. Or a friend in times of ease who visits me
Yet distances himself when sorrows afflict me

26. Damned is the city whose evil has spread
And ignorance has prevailed over other cities

27. Among its people I saw none but oppressors
While the equitable among them passed away

28. The greed of rulers toyed with them
As if they were inanimate objects

29. If not for avoiding blame, I would have lampooned them
And unleashed the vengeance of my poetry upon them

30. But if there is a transgressor among the people
I have no recourse but to turn away from him

31. May God replace misguidance with guidance
For God has power to change and affirm affairs

32. A people threatened me with death
Yet each person has an appointed day and time of death

33. I am innocent of the exalted ones if
I care about the threats of the vile people

34. If you kill me, you kill an innocent man
Who has not transgressed the bounds of manliness