1. How many hours have I kept vigil in darkness
Watching stars in the vastness of space

2. While my heart's sighs grow louder and louder
And my eyes meet them with weeping

3. Once I was called the poet of love
But today I am the poet of misery

4. The pasture for spring has withered
And rain tears have dried in the eyes of winter

5. The perfume of flowers arose when
The cheeks of the virgins smiled

6. Near that pond in the pasture a specter
Pale faced, protruding limbs

7. Hunger has woven a veil over his eyes
That we cannot see in the eyes of the living

8. He staggers forward a little
Then runs back swiftly

9. As if the doves were searching for him
While he hopes for salvation in refuge

10. Wretched, while life recoils from him
Like wreckage on the fringes

11. He is an innovation from Allah, but
The wealthy have rejected him

12. No consolation relieves some of his agony
In his darkest nights of misery

13. Except for space stars gazing down
Like heaven's eyes from on high

14. Bearing the secret of life strangely
So he sees in it the soul of radiance

15. At times he is consoled a little
By what brings some solace

16. Sometimes he hears the pond sing
And its sound comforts him with music

17. The pond's song is cool water
The poor man's song begs for food

18. The stars appear like coins
Thrown into the air

19. So he reaches for them yearningly
But space is too stingy

20. The city of vice and injustice expelled him
So the home of the destitute shelters him

21. That shelter where great Homer
Lived among the poets

22. His soul writhed in agony each dawn
Its poverty in the evening

23. Dew drops on the flowers from eyes
Not dried by the light of day

24. The tears perturbed in the nights
Pillows of the weak

25. God screams vengeance on high
Against the unjust, the covetous

26. Leave, o city of shame! The pasture
Is the cradle of prophets

27. It is haven for flowers, and flowers are chaste
Strewn in the pasture by heaven's soul

28. Leave, o hell on earth we have seen
Only abomination

29. The devils of the earth are stronger
They are the leaders and celebrities

30. Evil has multiplied in existence, so O Lord
Have mercy and pity the wretched

31. Did you create the wealthy for glory
And the miserable, did you create for misery?