1. I am reminded of lightning when it flashes,
Of dwellings where you all used to gather,

2. In the time of union, will it return
To extinguish what my ribs contain?

3. How can joy return to the passionate
When it is unlikely they will be joyous?

4. I left the beloved ones after you all,
For I drink the cup of weeping.

5. I tell you openly and tears flowed,
This is Hejaz and that one bubbles forth.

6. As if arrows from the bending bow,
So separation's shooting made us zealous.

7. And in the obstinate souls we have
And in the sent forth we have flowing tears.

8. I love the beautiful one and blackness of night,
And the Lord of the sky, fear of Him restrains.

9. So by nature I have aspiration
While by law I have no hope.

10. And I don't know beauty but I see
That to me integrity is loftier.

11. And had it not been for God-fearingness
I would have sought out misery,

12. And entertainment would have come together for me.
I kept the company of scholars and aspired to elevation

13. And I tried what harmed and what benefited.
So I did not see anyone more abject than one who aspires

14. May God destroy whoever aspires!
And I did not see anyone loftier than one who is content

15. So every young man who is content is praiseworthy.
And in my life I did not taste coffee

16. And its cup was not poured out streaming for me.
Nor did a skilled female singer tune her lute

17. and sing while I listen.
And had I ventured ignorantly into her passion

18. There would have been for the secret no repository.
Nor did a white-skinned tender one display to me

19. His softness, likened to the rising moon.
So whoever enjoyed the tender one,

20. He by him was enjoying.
And whoever obeys frivolity in the spring of youth

21. Will not return from old age.
I am the frustrated, the hypocrite, the confused one,

22. While their lights move and shine.
I brought together with knowledge poetry for it

23. Branches, its doves are cooing.
God protected my poetry from disgrace

24. So it bends not nor bows down.
And earning wealth through praise

25. Is disgraceful, painful and distressing to it.
My father left us seven

26. Children, their square brings good tidings.
Fate saw seven suns for us

27. So it envied us and thus four remain.
Their pain was my pain

28. But their separation was more painful.
It is fate that composes wrongly about its people

29. Lowering whom it should raise high.
Did you not see it as opposed to the God-fearing

30. While against whom fate is opposed, what can he do?
The poor people of piety were rendered mute

31. While those accustomed to bending cry loudly.
So how many with deficient mouths have high name

32. And many virtuous ones, their teeth are bared!
So do not be surprised if an ignorant one

33. His leadership suddenly uproots.
And if the ignorant ones attained glory

34. Still, under their place would not be place.
So leave the sciences if you come upon them

35. For they have with them no station.
Nor mention refinement in their presence

36. For the refinement of their poetry is worthless.
The greatest thing for them in status

37. Is a cheap person circumambulating or jostled.
I see stinginess, excessive and repulsive

38. While my efforts to their doors are more repulsive.
Oh how ugly they are in what they were empowered over

39. And how good they are when it is wrested away!
And if I were pleased with what the people are in

40. I would not be barred from attaining it.
I chose indifference - so how many a robe

41. By which its wearer's religion is divested!
And how much joy has brought sorrow

42. And how much laughter thereafter is tearful!
When I laugh at their state

43. They think I humble myself to them.
But does the lion laugh? Nay,

44. He bares his fangs when his poison flows.
What is past is past and what is over is over

45. And with the All-Dominant we will gather.
So neither status that day will benefit

46. Nor wealth then will intercede.
O you who gather wealth stingily with it

47. Go gently and see for whom you gather!
And O you who envy me, be as you wish to be

48. For I, by God, will defend myself.
And you, if you attack me foolishly

49. The martyrs, when called, refuse.
And none in the wilderness is rejecting