1. I experienced the people of this world, but did not see among them
Except one who became stingy, with greed filling his clothing

2. So I unsheathed from the scabbard of contentment a sharp sword
And I cut off my hopes in them with its blade

3. Thus no one sees me standing in their path
Nor sitting at their door

4. Rich without wealth, needless of all people
And riches is only in needing nothing, not in it

5. When an oppressor takes oppression as a fine approach
And persists in the ugliness of his earning

6. Then everything is left to the passage of nights, for they
Will show him what was not in his calculations

7. How many oppressors, obstinate, we have seen
Who see the stars collapse under the shade of his feet

8. But after a little while, when he is in his heedlessness
The vicissitudes of events will arrive at his door

9. So he is left with no money, no status to hope for
No good deeds recorded in his book

10. And he is rewarded for that which he did
As God poured upon him the whip of His punishment