1. Slow down! Where are you heading, O man
Don't you see how the paths ahead are blocked?

2. No more fruit or purpose remains in your striving
And the quick and the slow are made equal

3. What do you still expect from days gone by?
Is there any chance left in your life to revel?

4. You're just pitiful wreckage now, drained
Of life, with sickness gripping your heart

5. Pursuing fantasies with strained steps
Aiming for distant, impossible dreams

6. While death stealthily dogs his steps
Lost and confused, seeking any ray

7. To light his way through the unending night
You wasted the most precious years content

8. With poetry, led by dreams and proverbs
You built no fortress to shield against storms

9. Nor reached the glory of other men
Nor tasted life's pleasures in your grasp

10. Where once the world heeded your voice
You lived on the margins, no fame or flair

11. Your songs went unheard in a boorish age
Sung from the heart, yet no listeners -

12. All were too busy with their own noise
And now in exile you are distraught

13. Far from Baghdad though it can't be replaced
If all you suffered brought no gain

14. Only futility and dashed hopes
Blame not the days you misunderstood

15. The fault was in you, not your fate
Had you but known people's essence

16. Lies in their spirit, not their façade
No believing their feigned natures

17. Or relying on their affected care
You'd not have suffered wounds from ones

18. You thought of as friends, beyond healing