1. I find, O monk, your efforts vain,
And yet you tire not, monk, of your travail,

2. You pretend to be devout,
Yet you aspire to base things,

3. From mischief to falsehood,
To lies without shame,

4. By day you seek the world,
By night you seek the sublime,

5. So neither this world nor the next,
How woeful for you in this life!

6. All that dies is sated,
All life is but the present world,

7. If you are ignorant then be not ignorant
Of the ways of the abode and lives,

8. For life cannot be hidden if
It has shown us the farthest aim,

9. So ask what our scrolls have gleaned
Of things from what has passed,

10. You will find, I swear by your father, what comes
Of both states, the living and dead,

11. Good, desiring good,
And evil, necessitating woe,

12. You know not if you were neglectful
In both states, or a gazelle,

13. So tell me what thing you are
In this world, of this world,

14. Neither dead among the dead,
Nor living among the living,

15. Neither human to have companionship
Nor jinn to have contact,

16. Will you live though keeping apart
From those who died that you may live?

17. For he who gave life, destroyed,
And he who destroyed, gave life,

18. You came to God in monkhood
Yet you anger Him in your efforts,

19. Thinking to show Him evil
And deeming His evil good,

20. So you heard not His command
Nor heard His prohibition,

21. No praise, no gratitude,
No watering, no pasturing,