1. Time knows, O God, that I
Have probed its ups and downs, front and back.

2. While it shows you the bitter as sweet,
You find it has shown the sweet as bitter.

3. So its sweetness was pretense and guile
And its garb was evil and treachery.

4. If it turns away, my blame cannot reach it,
If it comes, my thanks cannot suffice.

5. So when its afflictions overwhelm me,
I confound it, for can afflictions prevail?

6. Do not despair of a glowering time,
If you have turned from a frowning sin.

7. Between time and free men there is a gulf.
So wonder not at a free man who endured it.

8. Their souls are protected from it and live
As my excuses were protected from blamers.

9. With God they last forever
While ages after them pass away.

10. Why be delighted with a frail abode
When you have heard what it did to Chosroes?

11. No dweller in it is ever protected,
It shows him its destruction then repairs it.

12. How many kings gained power over its spring,
And how many captives were killed at its source!

13. The sea was too narrow to drown its drowned.
The earth too narrow for its slain's graves.

14. Stop, my two friends, and give me bliss
With something for which I can find no excuse,

15. A day that requires my joy
When time looks at me with disdain.

16. Once drunk with my time, now I'm poor,
Now sober, but once was drunk.

17. So this was sobriety, that drunkenness.
Now sober, once drunk, how strange!

18. Where is that house and friends in it?
But you've heard that the house is desolate.

19. An abode whose dwellers have no constancy—
If you doubt, ask Zayd and `Amr.

20. A youth's morn is soon shadowed by evening.
An old man's evening is soon shadowed by death.

21. The world's lot is decline into ruin,
And this world will be changed for another.

22. That endures forever unchanged,
And every man's deed determines his reward.

23. If good, it endures with good reward,
If evil, it endures with evil reward.

24. When the foundation lacks a basis,
All you erect will collapse and fall.

25. How many people has earth covered over!
How many reputations and boasts buried!

26. How many foolish souls has it destroyed!
How many strayed with those who strayed blindly!

27. Why be content with what is impossible
When you know what God wills is most fitting?

28. You know what's behind this and that
Yet go wandering blindly in pomp and pride.

29. You imagine the earth and lusts in it
Are eternal, and it holds what gives joy.

30. You treated God's law as meaningless,
Destroying its judgments line by line.

31. You permitted the unlawful and no order remains
Because you neglected truth and ignored it.

32. You follow caprice, though God you obey not,
Disobeying His command and prohibition.

33. You sell your soul in this world for a pittance.
How can a soul be sold when it should be ransomed?

34. By your father's life, you are in error
If you ponder the conditions carefully.

35. Writers, if they undertook to,
Could not record such lessons completely.

36. Heed me, take me as sincere adviser,
Secretly and openly, your loyal confidant.

37. Take my hand to a Compassionate Master,
When you come to Him, you will prosper.

38. Perhaps God, the Exalted, will show favor—
I hope—and cure my sickness.

39. When God's mighty hand undertakes
To care for a servant, He makes hardship easy.

40. And His wisdom, when it brings distress,
Makes Safety leave both right and left hands.

41. His mercy, when it appears gentle,
Makes His justice a pardon and beneficence.

42. His favor, when it reveals itself, shines on you,
While you know best how to show favor.

43. His vengeance, when it descends on
A disobedient slave, allows no rest or flight.

44. God makes serene the sincere slave
Who repents, but hates whoever persists.