1. Amawi, estrangement and avoidance have lasted long
And my excuses to those seeking you are enough

2. Amawi, wealth passes away
Only tales and memories of wealth remain

3. Amawi, I never say to one who asks
When he comes one day, and little remains of our wealth

4. Amawi, either there is a clear refusal
Or giving that cannot be deterred by rebuke

5. Amawi, wealth does not avail a man
When his soul tightens and his chest contracts

6. When those I love guide me
To a slippery slope, its sides covered in dust

7. And they hastily shake their palms
Saying, “Our fingers have been bloodied by the digging”

8. Amawi, if my companions awake at a waterless wasteland
With no water or wine there

9. You would see that what I have destroyed did not harm me
And that my hands that were stingy with it are empty

10. Amawi, I am the lord of a mother’s only son
Whom I have set free, no killing or capturing him

11. And people knew that if Hatem had wanted
Wealth of money, he would have had abundance

12. But I do not seek to acquire wealth
Whose first is provision and last is hoarding

13. Which would relieve the distressed and be consumed wholesomely
And neither cups nor wine would strip it bare

14. I do not wrong the son of an uncle if my brothers
Are witnesses, though time has destroyed his brothers

15. We enjoyed ourselves for a time in leisure and riches
As time has its days of hardship and ease

16. We endured the ups and downs of fate gently and harshly
And each time fate gave us both cups to drink

17. Our wealth never increased our enmity towards a relative
Nor did poverty lessen our prestige

18. So I have often disobeyed the reproachers and devoted
My fingers to counting the tithe of my wealth

19. It does not harm a neighbor, O daughter of the people, so know
That he lives next to me but has no cover

20. My eyes are heedless of the women of my people
And I am deaf to their gossip