1. My sincere friends revealed
The trials have made clear

2. And the examiner refused to expose
Except for refined or muddy overflow

3. The stranger has no love in the race
Except for revelation and stripping bare

4. And the heart's secret, the mind knows
Before hearing, through mere gesture and nod

5. So the eloquent sufficed with a hint
Of what he wanted, through mere allusion

6. And the intellect's conjectures are sharper
Arrows than the sight of fools

7.
If you only exemplify a valid

8. Dirham to the keen observer
And thus you only recognize something

9. After examining its matter and testing
Both take some time to enjoy

10. And soon perishing erases them
So a trusted, faithful friend for hardship

11. And hoped for in calamity
You and he in the soul's essence

12. Are both of the same soil and air
And water whose mixture

13. Settled congenially in a vessel
There was no superiority between them

14. Except the separators of titles and names
Something you got to know through friendship

15. And purified by removing the cover

16. Gems only show what is inside
When rubbed against the whetstone

17. Be not fooled by the taster
In the state of temporary meeting

18. Of speech adorned with beautiful praise
And talk like white coffee

19. And an oath to lend you warmth, do not look
At their frailty or recovery

20. A slave of the eye, if you are absent from him
He eats the meat and drinks the blood

21. And if you want him to kill
He directs friendship to the gallows

22. A master of merit said, of the elite
Of the sincere chosen ones:

23. The people of Iraq are no friends to me
If they deviate from the path of loyalty

24. My friend is he who shares feelings
Generosity, dew, shyness

25. Not distracted from him by meanness
Or forgetting the lofty if degraded

26. His wealth is his treasure if calamity descends
And the tolerant's nature narrows

27. The old man is estranged from his children
The gentlest of women do not pity his first-born

28. A wisdom I inherited from a wise
Philosophic sage of the prophets

29. Of no use to a man in life
In his poverty or wealth

30. Better than a friend and enjoyable comrade
Fortunate in dire gloom

31. There is no difference between friend and soul
In obtaining a share of things

32. O namesake of the advisor, O my soul's half
And brother in gloomy adversity

33. O brother who excels in glories and gifts
Highest status of the eminent

34. Not reduced by habit, not hindered by birth
From rising above

35. And he still has of his blossoms
Virtues that grow on arid land

36. Time has parted me in it
With two arrows of separation and estrangement

37. I see him only at the house's edge
Or after a duration of misery

38. When I see him, it is as if I am
Between a delightful garden's blooms

39. The darkness's evening appears to my sight
With painful expressions and piercing cries

40. Conversations, if you call the unhearing with them
They would answer, so excellent is that call

41. You are good company, so submit
To the hardship of fate and live safe from harm

42. We will not chide you complaining, seeking
Apology with forgiving the educated

43. With speech, if fate had hearing
It would incline to listen for its beauty

44. And if a single letter were cast
Into the oceans from it, the water's taste would change

45. It is sharper than swords, when brandished
More truthful than the firm decrees of destiny

46. It heals the breast of resentful malice
And calms the inflammation of a blue wound

47. Its reciters wear it as a gown
Of beauty that is more honorable than any gown

48. The narrators do not find fault with it
Nor is what they hear of it open to exception

49. It is not coarse raving or maundering
Nonsense of disordered clouding

50. Rather, it is cool, pure water
When agreeing with one fasting at nightfall

51. The ground shifts yet it is freshly even
Celestial, of the essence of Gemini

52. Reproach of a gentle friendship, more subtle
Than the speech of prophets, though of dusty origin

53. If any fault comes from your brother
Flowing against the creed of the faithful

54. Reproach is majestic unlike the lapse
Of scholars, it cannot be matched

55. Truly I say, may God give you long life
In ascendance and loftiness

56. The saying is yours, not ours, and submission is ours
To the way of the wise

57. Goodness is better than picking out faults
Forgiving in taking and giving

58. Overlooking a slip, if it hurts
Dismissing interpretation and denial

59. Not every lapse can bear apology
Its lack causing the brotherhood to falter

60. I have not seen contention cause aught
But separation, however long the contention

61. A bride prepared for divorce
Reproached at a happy occasion

62. Prolonged reproach breeds hatred
In the heart of one hating hatred

63. I say this not because I reproach
But trees of reproach bear separation's fruits

64. Not all brothers fulfill what satisfies you
Of each charming quality

65. In them is what is in men of faults,
Some you praise one day, some equal

66. What fault do you see like red gold
Or a radiant tail?

67. Where is one who safeguards the friend, unseen,
From the evil company of enemies?

68. When this is missed, the days will not show him
So delight afterward in crying

69. An example I have set for you, so listen
And examine - may you be rewarded well

70. Everything is known by sense or hearing
Or clear proofs

71. So it has a place, and in it a chef
Of eloquence, with end and expiration

72. And each of intimates has a state
In which he equals the peers

73. What thing greater in esteem than the sword
On the day of terrible calamity?

74. Tell me, does the sword benefit in disaster
Save for the strongest blow?

75. And deadly epidemic, which is the death rattle
On the day of earthquake and tribulation

76. Do you see it demanded in the battle's folly
Save for the stabbing, piercing blow?

77. So too the friend suits the hour
Not the morning or evening

78. So hold to him and do not leave him
Lest you see him become contentious

79. And both procure for the state, not fancy
Between heart and entrails

80. Small matters are a burden to the eminent
From them and from pride and conceit

81. The kings of mankind, God has made bare
Their kingship, in need of the vile

82. Had God left kings without followers and soldiers
Flaws would appear and thrones crumble

83. And equal the lowly, debauched ones
Since between the best of God's creations

84. There is difference, and between fools
A coat of mail does not withstand them

85. Except the links of the artful
Thus humans are subdued for him

86. Between earth and sky
And by blessings, thanks are sought

87. Equal to the Giver of blessings
Then he did not spare them imperfection, need

88. And incapacity, sharing equally
So that man be in utmost balance

89. Between bliss and misery
So be patient with the friend if he slips

90. Or goes by foot astray from guidance
He is like water, have you seen a spring

91. Spared from turbid droplets?
And enjoy him, for he is enjoyable

92. And a reserve for a dreadful hour
What body remains eternally

93. Spared from the killer of constitutions?
What garden have you seen, the days

94. Leave eternally green?
Or what good has the eye shown you

95. But yellowed at the edges?
This life is but delusion

96. And misery for the hapless
We in it are riders traversing lands

97. As though we have reached the destination
What can we expect as we race with death

98. Galloping faster than racers?
If the friend turns away and flees

99. To places no path reaches
And casts brotherhood from the highest

100. Into gloomy plunging darkness
Heedless, not hoping to walk one day

101. Out of shame
Leave him, he will not be guided by a night's

102. Barking or long howling
Only the remainder is hoped for, from one

103. With remaining and place for survival
Make yourself comfortable with the blessed friend

104. One day of tumultuous gloom
Who, when called, answers, and if he is

105. A champion of horsemen heroes
All that you possess for the loyal

106. And the mongrels and bastards
Whom, if you want for an occasion

107. Comes outstripping like the yearning she-camel
And if you want him for a contest

108. Comes like the fangs-baring lion
So if he contends, he comes with undeniable

109. Proof, brilliant, shining arguments
Vanquishing troops, his mention of them

110. Makes them prey to reverberations
He takes them on with the sword of thought

111. And spear of sound views
Swords of intellects sharper than

112. Indian blades in the hand of a dusty knight
You see the people fallen in the fray

113. Captives of his bucket and pulley
He has a Fascine turning its

114. Front as a flood, like an ash-colored elephant herd
The warriors are palm trees, as you see

115. The movements of the brave brigade
The dumbness of rhetoric in speech

116. Clarion of relics and tidings
What better thing than him, a knight

117. Riding the vast wilderness
In wars without strategy

118. And fighting without ammunition
A victim without crime he's guilty of

119. And a wounded man resigned to his organs
A slain beneath boards who survives

120. By a trick in the moment of salvation
While in that he is gentle, unperturbed

121. No distinction between slain and captive
You see him drinking a poisoned cup

122. With a suggestion of a kiss or song
None rivals him in valor but

123. Bassam ibn Qais and the martyred knight
He has replaced my intimate, like the juice

124. Of water for the murky intimacy
With affection, as if the tender

125. Narcissus, sickly with musk and saffron
Firm and stable, though the house

126. Was vacant, and union long absent
I fear not his absence, nor does he fear me

127. In closeness or estrangement
How great you two friends of pure comradeship

128. No two friends rival you in comradeship
You both have my intimate inclination

129. More than singers in a bramble field exalted you
That is my effort, if devoted

130. Though I appreciate you with the best reward
Affection's gift of tender speech

131. Rewards most precious affection