1. Has not the time come for impetuous youth to grow calm and mature,
And disdain the wildness of youth, that overbearing mistress,

2. And for the restless soul to renounce passionate desires,
And regret how carried away it once was, and repent,

3. And for the fire of vice to die down after having flared up,
And for the fire of righteousness to blaze though it was covered in ashes,

4. And for the eye to hold back its tears from flowing
Down the throat though the rope of destiny frays,

5. And to know that is how fate always acts:
It separates those joined and voids the concluded,

6. And exalts the lowered and lowers the exalted,
Making the eminent once of high rank the most noble.

7. You were ignorant of matters whose ignorance did not touch you,
So learn the cure for ignorance is to seek to learn.

8. God has made the disease of ignorance incurable
For those who have it, so beware wherever you step!

9. It is ignorance that refuses the sleeper his couch
When proper timing demands he rise and stand straight.

10. So it blinds and deafens, with delusion from the Lord,
And neither delusion nor blindness clears from it.

11. O you who ask about me, child of whom and whose, wherever
You come, show me kindness—I am not to be blamed.

12. I am al-ʿIsāmī, of praised lineage, he who
Turned from his mother's religion, hers being the submissive faith.

13. May God water a grave that contained, alive,
A spirit and sweet herb, pure and goodly.

14. The son of my day is no son of my past. Let whoever
Comes to my abode find in it a gift of safety.

15. You will find in me a youth who refuses
To cower before misfortune, fresh, smiling, full-bearded,

16. Who prepares the widest lodging for his guests
And honors them, joyfully and comfortably.

17. A youth whom tribulations have toughened, persevering
When his day is gloomy, though calamities seek to shake him

18. And the winds of fortune try to knock him down—but can
The breeze make a firmly-rooted tamarisk tremble?

19. He learned of the science of doctrine what sufficed,
So by God's praise, there is no doubt he is Muslim.

20. And of other sciences he is learned, making them
incumbent on himself, while hoping to learn what he does not know.

21. When he speaks clearly in an assembly,
He has no fear of error wherever his speech rambles.

22. Though his talent is pure, he counts it
As poetry, its rhymes telling of wisdom and order.

23. May God deny wealth acquired through refusal
To lend to a neighbor when gloom gathers on the horizon,

24. And may God hurl it away in wrath, unsheathing swords,
And whetting spears and aiming arrows!

25. The lawless and the neighbor share it between them
While the onlookers think it plunder divided up.

26. As for me, I am the son of one who guards the rights
Of my sonship, and whoever guards them will find in me a loving son.

27. I am the son of one who hopes, when I am gone, for my quick
Return, and hopes I will succeed and prosper.

28. He honors those I left in his dwellings
Though they merit no such honor.

29. So he wakes with no fear of captives or few guests
And treats them in all affairs with precedence.

30. And when I come to him, the cheer of his face appears,
A suppressed smile in his returning of greetings.

31. Such is my father, who deserves what
A noble son owes, never to be blamed.

32. That is how he coddles me, or, better yet, I
Honor whom I love that he be honored.

33. And I am no son of one who, however Fortune assails me,
Is gladdened or enjoys comfort and chanting.

34. Nor am I the son of one who hopes and expects my grief
Whether I'm gone or here, so he can mourn.

35. Who would drive it away like a leper
Seeking refuge in a blessed place, so he endures.

36. And deny it my wealth and deny it his own—
No! Woe to the likes of that, woe indeed!

37. And insult it after me—did he not know
That when I am insulted, I join in insulting?

38. And realize I am zealous in protecting
And know that I retaliate for even a blemish.

39. I silenced all the vituperative poets,
So whoever dared revile went mute.

40. A prayer like the fragrance of flowers in the garden—
From the Creator of earth—upon the best of creation, in beginning and end.