1. How different is fear from safety,
And sorrow from ease!

2. Keep away from this world, or else
It will come to you one day with its calamities.

3. When you have gained enough to cover your needs,
Seeking more will lead you to prison.

4. O you who gather wealth, collecting it will suffice you,
And O you who build, what you construct will fall apart.

5. Alas! Whoever must eventually taste death
Will soon truly weep and grieve.

6. I'm amazed when I play heedlessly
That no eye sheds a tear at death's intoxication drawing near.

7. The days have moments that afflict us
Explicitly telling me of death, not hinting.

8. O eye, how much ugliness you've made seem beautiful to me!
Not everything you find attractive is truly beautiful.

9. It's as if a man was never of use to people for an hour,
When hands withdraw from him for burial.

10. Is there anyone longing for Paradise,
Whose soul yearns for it and for Eden?

11. It does not befit me to delight in a night
I spend with one who wrongs me, nursing hatred.

12. Whoever's soul is pleasant to me, I accept his nearness,
And whoever dislikes my company, he has ample leeway.

13. By your life! No God-fearing, righteous man
Has ever felt cramped - the righteous are in God's care.

14. Keep the advising man of reason far from love
If he does not draw near to piety or befriend it.