1. I sought you, O world, and made excuses in seeking
Yet I obtained naught but care, grief and toil

2. So when it became clear that I would not attain
Any pleasure save with pains manifold

3. I hastened in my religion and did not achieve my quest
I fled with my faith from you, if flight avails

4. I rid myself of all my efforts and powers for you
As people rid themselves of the itch of scabies

5. Never a day came to its eve that I was
Pleased with it, unmarred by turmoil

6. And I am one whom God has disappointed his effort
When I was pasturing a milkless camel

7. I see you should not be tempted by solitude
As if you were immune therein from decay

8. Did you not see it is a land of parting and grief
When one goes there, verily he is gone

9. I turn my glance time and again
To know what is in the soul and the heart tosses about

10. And I clothed myself with contentment and decency
So in my character there are treasures of gold

11. And I have not seen any trait like contentment for its people
And that man overlook what he lived in seeking

12. Nor have I seen any merit perfected but by probity
Nor any intellect sound but by discipline

13. And amongst foes, when I gained experience of them
I saw no enemy more hostile to reason than rage

14. Nor have I seen, between ease and distress, any mixture
Nor between the living and the dead any cause