1. My stubborn servant has no grace or affection
So I am not free when I say he is free

2. With a hard heart, coarse and frowning
Full of harm, showing miserliness, a mountain and rugged

3. Drowsy, sleepy, scheming, ungrateful
Grumbling, stingy, finding fault, treacherous, immersed in sin

4. Smart, with subtle thoughts, alert to
What concerns him, but for my interests he is deaf

5. Wretched, if I treat him well he rewards me
With evil, no secret stays hidden with him

6. Heavy, light with what I entrust him
And like a leopard pouncing on my money

7. Every day he has a trial or complaint
Gossip and rumors, thus spreads blasphemy

8. He has a greed for eating and drinking unmatched
Except for an oven, devouring like desert vegetation

9. Warm bread is present and food ready
Yet he claims hunger has worn out patience

10. To him my displeasure and pleasure are equal
So neither my disdain nor estrangement bother him

11. When nobles of my people come to my gathering
He makes moves hinting at fault and inferiority

12. And he seeks to anger me during the two feasts
I bear it patiently as the Feast of Breaking Fast and Sacrifice come

13. If I say arise, bring us cool water, he says to me
Do you desire luxury and are being fooled?

14. If I say season our bread, he says do not
Oppose what our righteous ancestors used to do

15. If I say flavor my food, he says the ways
Of what people used to eat are gone

16. If I say decorate our house, he says all this
Is extravagance, none of his peers ever thought of it

17. If I say present my basin for ablution,
He says if you cannot manage purity will be completed

18. If I say serve the drink of water, he shakes it
In anger, hoping sediment will make it murky

19. If I say take care of some of my important tasks
He says if you did it yourself you'd get the reward

20. If I say wipe my shoes, he says fie
Will you aid Satan against yourself and not victory?

21. If I say present my mule, he says my mule
And brays at me mockingly and tells lies

22. If I say refine our wheat, he says an innovation!
I will refine for the rightly guided one and his righteous companions

23. If I say in the bathhouse scrub my feet
He says to me take care or the freeman may be afflicted

24. If I say apply the perfume, bring it to me, he says
Ugly for one who will not stay with scent and fragrance

25. If I say polish and thoroughly rub our clothes
He says do you polish for one whom the grave has taken?

26. If I say check on the food, is it cooked?
He says I miss the salt so the pot overturned

27. I say is there anything leftover from yesterday?
He says I lost the provisions so the cat dragged it away

28. If I say who is at the door? Babbling, he says
Azrael is at the door and the matter is settled

29. If I say what's the news? He says bad
They plotted against you, or a man died, or prices rose

30. If I say don't steal, money is tight
He says I'm more anxious after life departed

31. If I say don't beg from people, we'll be shamed
He says Moses asked people for help, and so did Khidr

32. If I say don't do it or do it, he says I'm tired
Of your prohibitions and commands, until when?

33. How often have I tasked him at dawn
But he wandered off, and came back at sunset having prayed

34. My clothes and bowls are with him in humiliation
Tossed aside, neither folded nor arranged

35. And my basket, what trash is beneath it?
Oh it breaks my heart when the basket is lifted

36. I have a lamp that looks like his face
After two months it is washed, by the month

37. With most necessities he aggrandizes himself
Oh most powerful of boys, what are you and grandeur?

38. Servant lowly, are you ascetic sublime
As was the son of Adham or Bishr?

39. By what does a dog gesture? I am no lover
Nor is his beauty amazing, his mouth a pearl

40. Nor his face dawn, his hair dusk
Nor his height a branch, his saliva wine

41. I met the opposite of my aim when I bought him
I hoped for benefit but harm struck me

42. I said a captive, I will rest by his softness
But he exhausted me, by God, and captivity reversed

43. If I had treated him with meanness
I would say by disobeying me time punishes me

44. So I wonder what was that price
With which I bought him, was it dice or wine?

45. So do not think this one I described
You erred, he is neither this tenth nor this tenth

46. If I sell him they return him for a fault quickly
Blaming me, and the buyer has an excuse to return him

47. If freeing him would comfort me
I would do it, but I fear increased evil

48. Far off is my salvation from him unless by his death
So I was pleased his life would not be long