1. Alas! What a marvelous life whose mornings are renewed
And say, can its prisoner be ransomed?

2. So do not lure me, oh life, with your ropes
For the worst ropes are those that entice

3. If you want to guide my people then ask
Where is the dignity and benevolence headed?

4. You see the bearer of burdens and the repeller of adversity
When distress constricts, their hearts withstand

5. With them, war is waged, succor found
Religious duties fulfilled, sweet and bitter

6. So do not blame me and ask what is my nature
When the turn of fate returns, who can borrow it?

7. And they were sitting around it watching over it
And it was the damsel of the tribe who illuminated it

8. When the horizons of the sky reddened and
The winter winds raged and its months began

9. You see my fate is ever like
A devoted mother visiting her well-groomed son

10. Exposed, with no veil before her
When fires die down, her embers glow

11. When the emaciated camel’s udders cease, still
Its milk is tasted by the teeth of the sucklings

12. The sword is unsheathed if it comes before her
And if warned, the warner benefits her naught

13. As if the sweat on its roundness
Were cool hands fanning it

14. We do not curse guests if they descend upon us
And the guardian cannot prevent his flock

15. And I see you harboring rancor
I shun its filth as it comes from the Lord

16. Dignified, when ignorance amazes its people
One of the best traits in a man is his dignity

17. The enemies have despaired of provoking me
With the lions' stance, pounce, and roar

18. And one day with cubs like veiled damsels
Whose tents restricted what they cover

19. I wrapped its mane around my head and tasked myself to get it
There a sluggish old lion, weakened

20. The sun draped itself over it as if
It threw its calmness on it from the heat

21. And water I met with only the wild goats
With prominent throat bones and slender necks

22. As if the juice of angsa in its veins
Were bouza and mead, thick and turbid

23. And a night whereof the people said, in its darkness
The sights of eyes and the blind are equal

24. As if we had from it impregnable homes
With high roofs and decorated walls

25. I surpassed it until its galloping ended
And the illuminating light of the sun appeared