1. My being is my effort, and I have striven more,
Yet I see not in you one who keeps their word.

2. If yesterday I was ascetic among you after desire,
Then after choosing, my asceticism was in joining you.

3. By my life, I have been patient with you all,
Drinking the bitterness of rancor.

4. I came to you with a true friend’s sincerity that you might be led aright,
Yet you refuse, unless you swerve from the right way.

5. You despair of my love, but I,
If I turn away, never shall I return.

6. My heart consents only to eschew you all,
As you eschew me, so in remoteness and distance.

7. I see betrayal opposite loyalty, yet I
Know opposites spring from opposites.

8. If you betray my covenant in secret, why then
Do you fawn like one keeping their word?

9. Be faithful and act like one joined in friendship,
Else turn away and act like one turned away.

10. I have no choice but to avoid you,
Even if you think I have no other choice.

11. How many a warner have I been among you,
And here I am, a warner to those after me.

12. Oh what regrets for a youth wasted,
Its gratitude lost, without wage or thanks.