1. What remains for the vicissitudes
And death is the adversary of the living

2. We have tested the cunning of time, but
Its delusions have distracted us

3. A star that continues to run among the peo­ple
With two opposites, glory and demise

4. It is sometimes like a righteous father
And sometimes like a wrathful avenger

5. It leaves no descendant, ruins or governor, no sultan
How can man hope for eternity in it

6. After the father of man has passed
Where are those who were before us since

7. The sphere of earth rotated, it being smoky
Nations who have lasted eternally for a while

8. Then were lost in the abyss of oblivion
The hand of death reaped them and they became

9. News of existence after sight
So mark the features of the earth and ask

10. Perhaps the pyramids will answer you
A sign whose craftmanship shows that Hermes

11. Built it from the most wondrous of buildings
He feared the loss of knowledge when

12. Clear proofs came to him of the Deluge
So he built it from rocks brought

13. By the centuries from Aswan
Layers within which are rooms

14. That contain all wisdom and clarity
They remained after their makers so they were

15. Silent witness without a tongue
After a while it will wear out and the

16. Memory of Hermes will be erased from the register of time
This life is but delusion

17. That passes with misery and deprivation
In it is nothing but fantasies and imaginations

18. Feigned by perceptions of the minds
Whims they have included in words

19. Philosophic not combined with meanings
Every living being thinks a thing but

20. Where is the evidence of proof from it
We have known what was close to us

21. And ignored what the eyes do not see
So leave philosophical words and submit

22. To the majesty of the Just Judge
O fate, I know my destiny in you

23. But I am unbridled
I have persisted in going astray until

24. Fate has curbed my wickedness and bent me