1. Shall I reveal or conceal what ails me,
And how many days I endure with patience and forbearance?

2. I make excuses to myself with hopes, feigning endurance,
And delude it that chastity is in nothingness.

3. I was patient with events until they melted me away,
And until their daggers reached my bone.

4. No creature has met what I met,
Of woes and injustice in judgment.

5. Yet I have not blamed others for their injustice,
Nor have their events oppressed anyone like my oppression.

6. Show me one sick at heart like me, in aspiration,
Infirm in wealth, condition, fortune and body.

7. My resolve did not fail me, so I blame it not,
Nor was I straitened since I was in my learned company.

8. My policy is sharper than the spear of the brave,
And my insight more keen than the seeing one’s discernment.

9. Why then am I buried under dust in ruin?
When I have given distinction to the eminent with my name.

10. Why should I tread low in the dust in decline?
When my hands have grasped the shoulder of the star.

11. O son of the Excellency of the Faith, all merit
Has ended with you, beyond both Arab and foreigner.

12. Shall I call upon you, or complain to you of my darkness?
Shall I complain of you, or speak subtly of the matter, or name it?

13. Do my suspicions about your loftiness become unjustified?
And my hopes turn out scattered without scheme?

14. I drink my blood when I become your guest in the morning,
And eat my flesh when your love is sincere.

15. You lessen the share that you yourself began,
Though you are most entitled to justice in allotment.

16. If you are the ruler whose judgment is accepted,
Why do you, below your rule, become my adversary?

17. Give me according to the extent I have done good,
And do not give me what my arrow cannot reach.

18. For I fear, if I deny your glory,
And against you, if your highness intends harm, I shoot.

19. My due from you was nothing but that I
Hoped, after war, for the consequence of peace.

20. Many a lover went, content with a glance,
When deprived of embrace and kiss.

21. So if I am a beloved, be the best companion
To my rope, for in you are gathered all my concerns.