1. O one who found the dew burdening,
And no longer hope for his return,

2. If you are vexed with me,
Your cleverest schemes cannot avail.

3. Neither was your view ever right,
Nor was your affection ever true.

4. So when you wanted an ally
Against success, then be his messenger.

5. And when you sought to lead him astray
One day, then be also his guide.

6. You would have desisted from your aim
As the abject desists from the sublime.

7. Yet you ask of me the impossible
From among matters most difficult.

8. And I reckon he was searching
The words of Dimna or Kalila.

9. It is a tale you expressed in it
Your miserly nature so mean.

10. You have indeed descended to the abode
Of every impending doom.

11. I yearn her favors, but procrastination
Deprives me of the way to it.

12. If the procrastinator angers
The time, she pleases her successor.

13. So you wrote mentioning what
I forgot of her copious boons.

14. Thus did your letter bear witness to you
In writing and virtue.

15. Were it not for your concise
Expression of your beautiful visit.

16. I would have undertaken it in a state
That makes the intimate forget his beloved.

17. And I fled from the harshness of destitution
To comfort and ease.

18. Whoever lodged in that side,
Ask not about the base life.

19. And enough pride is a stand
Whose splendor refuses decline.

20. And praising one who loved praise
Until he attained his hopes.

21. With the wonders of poetry which
The ears are fortunate to hear.

22. Poverty befell Abu Ubadah
Beyond which are its stories and tales.

23. I became discarded in the bare wilderness
While you enjoy the thickets.

24. If the pouring rain enriches you
Then I hope for its floods.

25. May the generous Abu Al-Hasan ransom me
For I did not find among them a peer.

26. I call them in a year of estrangement
And the best of tribes host them.

27. Favors that become burdensome to the recipient
And yet if carried are precious.

28. A cloud for seekers of gifts
Except me, truthfully promising.

29. And if it dispensed in justice
I would be the strongest asking it.