1. By your life, the home we do not leave
Is dearer to us than lands we roam

2. I said to my friends when I climbed the hill
With my soul almost carried away by passion

3. Blessed be the Abode of Peace and blessed
Be the tents of piety and its homes

4. And from Marqab Al-Zawraa a beloved home
Its coves and peaks are intimate to us

5. And watering the heights of the two valleys and hope
When their lights dawned to your eyes one day

6. With lightning ancient ruins which as if
Their inscriptions are monks’ scrolls

7. The living endured it when it was set ablaze
By the fervor of youth and its heat blew

8. Among the living, fair of brow as if
A summer cloud with its rain about to pour

9. And when we saw the boon of play had passed
Its days with it and its months

10. We whistled though it was not the first boon
Whose nights wore it down and marred it

11. So how often have we seen a life grow turbulent
And another tranquil after its river grew muddy

12. Fortune can betray so the wealthy become poor
And the poor gain wealth after misery

13. When God makes matters easy, hardships dissolve
Its strength weakens and the difficult grows gentle

14. Generosity is not from the poverty of men nor wealth
But it is the spirit of men and their virtue

15. So how many who covet something do not attain it
And how many wretched when good news reached them

16. How many who feared became fear itself and how many complainers
Assumed power while time makes its bitterness sweet

17. I mixed with the brethren until I knew them
None knows the brethren but the insightful

18. I do not fault constant companions until they fault
And walk a path no prisoner walks

19. You will not, after evil, find
A lasting, faithful, steadfast friend

20. You know that among the faithless are those
Whose secret is hidden from you

21. So do not be deluded by a companion's flattery
You know not what fate is in store

22. And guard your soul from many things
For you have no soul after it to borrow

23. How often have we seen a life grow turbulent
And a condition clear after its river grew muddy

24. Guard your soul and do not reveal to people
A secret it can conceal in its conscience

25. Whoever follows what pleases the soul will not cease
Obeying it in deeds that would harm it

26. Do not approach sin, for its sweetness
Will fade and its bitterness will remain

27. Do not let the world distract you from truth, and do good
For the next life which you will surely reach

28. No secret of a people is kept concealed
When secrets spread, many will be revealed

29. Except by the chaste one aided to do so
By the honesty of his soul and its virtue