1. A scorpion-like one watered for a time in Babylon,
Filled with what would satisfy and quench thirst.

2. Violent in journey, gentlest when settled,
Upon the superabundance of what he fulfills and accomplishes.

3. He visits the land after his dryness in it
With drizzle from his buckets and rain clouds.

4. He watered so it flowed, and fattened every thirsty one
That passes by him, and lifted every lowered one.

5. So whoever is arrogant after the rain is a transgressor,
And whoever is watered after dryness is humble.

6. And he honored a family who, when
My clear, pure streams were cut off,

7. Bore my life's burden and drove away the blows of fate from me,
And stimulated the reins of my endeavor and goal.

8. They illuminated my doctrine so I glanced freely
After my downcast eyes and gloom.

9. And they stood between my days and me
So they were not ruined or shaken in their pulse.

10. They shielded my face and I asked no other but them,
And they gave every supererogatory act and duty.

11. So I spend my mornings with them and my evenings away,
To the abundant wealth and honor that are mine.

12. Is there one to bear my longing to them
Despite the pain and torment in it?

13. One to bear it and deliver it to them
On sand grouse he startles and flushes out?

14. One who chants to the pilgrims with it and ascends
Noisily between nearing and galloping?

15. Then he is heard, then heard by noble ones
Bereft of life after them, and pours forth.

16. And since my world drew away from them
In estrangement and refusal,

17. I spend what I wrongly waste of my time
With agonies that nearly destroy me.

18. So I lived, and some of me in Baghdad,
Sick, and some of me in Tikrit,

19. And though rebuked with censure or reproof,
Still preceding in the paths of glory.

20. I befriend them, so by evening affection for them
Slips on smooth ground from the quarrelsome.

21. And I determine sincere praise of them
Which their blamers meet with rejection.

22. Had the perfection of the kingdom protected me
I would have enjoyed prosperity in lowliness and abasement.

23. Then he would have restored a glittering, shining
Rule to my customs, clan, and family.

24. I ransom you, O father of glories, with every palm
That falls short of you in open-handedness and grasping.

25. And every hand degraded by moral failings
That cannot remove dishonor by purity or cleansing,

26. Humble in virtues each day,
With lineage that comes and goes.

27. Anger carried you far from
His gloomy entrails, and poured them forth.

28. You are generous, yet in the rain clouds' gifts some dimness,
And the water of your hands is pure and unsullied.

29. Men give stingily and you give
The gift of thanks from debt and loan.

30. Gifts embarrass you, yet they are many,
As if you were indignant and your munificence grudging.

31. God fulfilled perfection, so you were the embodiment
Of His image, while the people's creation proceeds.

32. I chose you in the wilderness after I cut off
The path of free choice from them and turned away.

33. I sought refuge in you from misfortunes atop me
And beneath me, between rising and squatting.

34. So your attainments have delivered me until
Both my sins and muddy history were erased.

35. Now I am torn between my needs and longing
For some deliverance from their claws and release.

36. I squeeze my heart and eyes to you
With a sign among you of my wasting and blindness.

37. How the delay from you has marred us
And your patience with the piercing estrangement!

38. I wish the time appointed for you would come,
I wish the first milk of you would come forth.

39. So much anger at the world and avoidance
Of realms while they vie for favor!

40. Talk of you comforts with glories
So get ready - they are days of getting up!

41. I see them at their ripest, their harvest near,
And their sealed outcome favorable to you.

42. May I delight eyes with your nearness
That envied me in sadness and enmity,

43. And the panting of your enemies may cool soon
With grief in breasts worn by anxiety and care.

44. But why have you neglected me
When lightning flashed after lightning?

45. Do you reckon me self-sufficient without you
In my ornaments or wanderings and running?

46. God forbid! And the covenant kept
Even if my completeness and perfection faltered

47. And my reliance on presents from Nayrouz pledged
For my needs however pressing?

48. So do not imagine for me fertile pasture
If your rain clouds withheld from my land,