1. No eye remains of the world, nor a trace
So how can you hear if it is obscured, and how can you see?

2. It is enough for the young man to look at every consequence
If he had not refused, he would have looked.

3. How alike are death and life, and most fitting for one
Who does not know pleasure, not to know joy.

4. Prepare your provisions of words and deeds
For if the stay is prolonged, it necessitates travel.

5. And devote yourself to your affairs with words and deeds
For each will flow to its extent, long or short.

6. And ask about people - have they met their fate?
For I don't think you are one who is unaware of news.

7. I fulfilled the needs of my soul without problems
In death, I did not fulfill any knowledge of it or escape.

8. I draw near to it, yet it distances itself, appearing only
In confusing glimpses, neither familiar nor strange.

9. And I cry out to the self in compassion
While below it what misses the poison and sight.

10. Alas! You despaired of what despaired time
So do not waver, and if you can, determine as was determined.

11. O you who saw the lightning, the night startled it
As if it were my ribs, resembling blaze.

12. I contended with it until I almost overcame it
And the night had fulfilled what it vowed to me.

13. The stars wandered, confused where and from annoyance
If it tilted or transgressed its orbit, it would not feel.

14. And dawn seeks in the wing of gloom a gap
From which it could shine, but if it found it, it would not dare.

15. I protect the horizons whenever the calamity presents itself
Spending the night overwhelming them with another misfortune.

16. From every extinguished ember its imagination did not lie
If it were a trait for fate, it would not betray.

17. The blows of the morning breeze blocked the back of its saliva
About a precipice below it from its tremendous awe.

18. A sea no doubt when a flash lightened from it
It almost burst forth whenever it stirred.

19. A pouring cloud covered the earth
That did not diminish from its dripping, though it was no rain.

20. If it turned away from a country, you saw its courtyard
As if it were a known face when thanked.

21. So I watered with it a grave in Cordoba
I witnessed it and saw grace had been buried.

22. A grave that contained of the family of Spring, years
A sun that set, the sun and moon seek its radiance.

23. A grave we left there with the highs covered
What between the harshness of stones and the softness of soil.

24. A grave we left there, the garden of wishes faded,
The sun rising and the tears pouring.

25. So say to its seekers and questioners
Even if we urged the shining stars upon it.

26. Trail the torrents of tears there copiously
For sometimes it may split from what exposes the flowers.

27. And cry over it like a Kaaba whose rituals
Are the grave’s stillness, not stone or pebbles.

28. And do not fear for it that it will be lost in it
For it is but an eyelid while she in it is the pupil.

29. With devotion, when every land is a perfumed courtyard
And every heaven a robe of leadership.

30. With forbearance, when the meteors plummet from their orbits
And the shooting stars fall from their horizons in frustration.

31. With generosity, when the eye cannot console its onlooker
Even if hearing and sight come to rouse it.

32. Oh what sorrow that filled the chest of time with anguish
It became evening and morning narrowed and confined by it.

33. The mountains of my joy vanished from their places
And every fierce lion felt fear of it.

34. And the land vanished or slipped with its dweller
Come to me as night is about to pass, and seize the opportunity.

35. Extend to it your term, for if it could, it would have seized
The opportunity from you.

36. How the worshipper cried out, if only you felt it
To your recitation of verses and chapters!

37. And how often the virgins came to pick from it
The pearls and rubies of the tears of your eyelids!

38. And wove them into a rosary and recited upon it
Lest some of the adornment be blamed or forbidden.

39. And if you insist on a necklace of songs
Then grant him the heavenly maidens, do not grant him mortals.

40. Of every hidden pearl, sociable like wine
Shedding its splendor even if the wine did not budge.

41. For whom you left the orphans when you left them
Disheveled by the separation, no water or trees.

42. My scattering and they lingered by it
Do not distance yourself or your scattering would distance.

43. O you who carry her bier, however do you step
For you have carried with it an astounding feat?

44. Lay it down, from here one with a soul will carry it
Showing affection and tears submerging memories.

45. The garden of Paradise has drawn near with its maiden neighbors
Looking for your trace.

46. Staying up, the horizon eager, and seldom has one who awaits
Spent a night happy, so await.

47. Does life, however cheerful its mirth
Remain other than clouds roaming and fanciful delusions?

48. As for modesty, you are its purpose
Even if some ignorant feigned it or conspired against it.

49. Restrain your heart if the heart of the suspicious wandered
And halt your tears if the tears of the sensible flowed.

50. And return to patience, one day you will gain from it
For you have marked the young and old with it.

51. And be as I knew you, while minds are reckless,
And the innocent are seized by ambitions and eagles.

52. For ruin has a battleground in every devious
And has called on the ignoble, the frivolous and foolish.

53. Do not forget your fortune in fine condolence, for you have not
Shown in the like of it either cowardice or humiliation.

54. I did not come to the far reaches of what I widened
With resolve, but came apologizing.

55. A servant who came late, for he did not find a vacancy
Perhaps since he had no justification, he came intending pilgrimage.