1. Hardship besieged me from every side,
And long contemplation and vigilance troubled me,

2. And the call of mortality to decay disturbed me,
And the One who is most Sublime amazed me by what He scorns.

3. Yet my good opinion of my Creator strengthened my heart,
Though the powers of hearing and sight weakened me.

4. And if what I desire is hindered from me
In my coolness, as one grown senile with age is told off.

5. So my spirit called out to the intermediate realm and twisted away,
And my body called out to the graves and the dug pits.

6. For this one is the prisoner of the grave, in the abode of decay,
While that one is the prisoner of the tomb, in the intermediate realm of forms.

7. And had I not had Truth, I would have been fettered,
And had I not had creation, I would have been endangered.

8. So my Truth adorns me with the powers that are in me,
And my creation adorns me with what is attributed to mankind.

9. How sweet is the taste I have tasted
Of knowing God—the desired, and what He has commanded!

10. It is as if I tasted dates in their prime,
And in knowledge we have tasted only the appetizer.

11. So I have fulfilled what God has obligated me to do,
Through the disposal of Fate along with Predestination—

12. The care of a Choosing One, Knowing, Informed,
And I have come just as Moses came, according to his appointed term.