1. May God reward me with obedience in matters
The reward of a generous, wise one, knowing what to do

2. If you reward me among them, you surely have power
To reward as you wish the servants and plant

3. They wear away my bones as much as they can, but I
Erect for them a structure of glory and raise high

4. How could you wrong me and complain
If I punish a man, and he is most unjust?

5. If embers flare up among you, you blame
Their harm and burning on me, it spreads

6. You see for yourselves glory in blaming me, but
My blame is for those whom senility makes raggedy

7. And yet there forbid me from ignorance among you
When I am about to err, four comrades of forbearance

8. Modesty, dignity, piety and that I
Am generous, so I give what I wish, and withhold

9. And if I pardon, I preserve the hearts of the obedient
For the stick was for the forbearing to tap

10. Did you not unhorse me from my steeds and strip
My reins, and none like me from the people is stripped

11. As the piercing did, and he never stopped
Treating a master, upright and long-suffering

12. And yet I race on after reaching the goal
And gouge out the eye of annoyance and uproot

13. And cauterize the nostrils of headache and seek
The joints of the pain in the head wherever it oozes

14. And yet it directs me to the best position
A father who was fathers, harming and benefiting