1. I read your letter to my family when it came
And told them, “This is protection from fate's blows.”

2. So each one of them, when fearing his fate,
Would clutch your letter tightly to his chest.

3. I remind you of the promise made between us
With each day and month that has gone by.

4. You said that the raindrop was a sign
That a flooding rain would follow drop by drop.

5. A hopeful man accepts such gifts from you,
Expecting ten fingers more of the same.

6. Small wonder! You're an ocean who empties his clouds
On the shallows, then on the depths.

7. The rain sends its first drops before its floods,
The dawn its first rays before the light.

8. You ransom people from deadly straits,
Becoming a smooth-rocked cradle for them.

9. You shade them from fear and other things,
Pressing your sons to your throat.

10. Your fear that they'll die of wealth
Equals your fear that they'll die of want.

11. That's why, at first, you shield all people,
Giving only what suits them, bit by bit,

12. Raising them by degrees toward more,
Lest a great gift suddenly descend

13. Upon a thirsty man and kill him
As his heart bursts from sudden joy.

14. For the spirit's joys are some that can kill it.
Its pleasures are sometimes its horrors.

15. Abu Hasan, how long will I be holding
My hopes that you will copy day after day?

16. Kindness requires you grant me sanctuary.
After that, two more grants: praise and patience.

17. You promised, so make good on your word, for you see
How the days betray and stab.

18. Can you feel safe when a disappointed suitor
Whose hopes were foolish finds himself spurned,

19. And kindles sorrow between your ribs
Like his own inextinguishable regrets?

20. No hopeful soul feels safe from fate's cunning changes.
We've grown so far apart, and we're neither steel nor rock.

21. Yet I hope your clouds will rain on me
As I spread my robe to catch the soft downpour,

22. The result of your true promise, witnessed
By a letter that spurs line after line.

23. No man whose word proved true ever broke a promise.
Oath-breaking I see as treachery, promise-breaking as betrayal

24. Had Misfortune herself promised me
And you kept that promise with a gift,

25. I'd prosper thanks to wealth you gave, whose root
Would be this gift, since you know I'm grateful.

26. From you, Majid, I'd take, or ask back humbly,
A very little. I'm the broad-minded sea!

27. Those hundred gold are nothing new from you.
Your brother Arraheeh Abu-l-Sakr might say the same.

28. Nor are they the most I expect from either of you.
How could they be? The matter goes much deeper!

29. I welcome your letter's return, for if
My back bends under loads, a prop is welcome.

30. It won't ever part from me, nor will people see,
When I'm summoned, that it parted me.

31. Why would it and I? When I read it my cares
Grow transparent, and I rejoice without wine,

32. And it makes my eyes shine in meadows
Of beautiful plants with scattering blossoms!