1. The decree of death in the wilderness is ongoing
This world is not a land of stability

2. While man sees in it one who informs
Until one sees news of news

3. It is innately troubled, yet you want it
Pure from muddiness and turbidity

4. And the one who obligates the days against their nature
Seeking in the water a spark of fire

5. And when you hope for the impossible, you merely
Build hope on the verge of destruction

6. For living is sleep and death is wakefulness
While man between them is a fleeting illusion

7. Whether the soul accepts that or refuses
It is led by the crisis of predestiny

8. So finish your desires hastily, your lifetimes
Are but a journey of journeys

9. And race the steeds of youth, take advantage
Lest they recoil, they would be bare

10. Time tricks with wishes, stings with
Construction here, and razes with ruination

11. Time is not amenable even if you befriend it
The nature of time is enmity to the free

12. I have been given a sharp, elegant sword
That I prepared seeking to tune the strings

13. I praise it for its effect though it
Does not delight that I praised relics

14. If you prevented the youths among us, seas
Swirling, from daring toward you

15. They penetrated the earth’s expanse with blood
Then leaned back thus building a dust-filled sky

16. A people, when they don armor, you would think them
Clouds strewn with stars upon the moons

17. And you see the swords of the armored as though they
Were flashes that hands with palms extend

18. If they unfurled their oaths, due to their length
They would stab with them beyond spears

19. Lions, but they prefer their provisions
While the lion does not stoop to preference

20. Were I to challenge him, he would depend
Only on fangs and claws

21. And when he clenches his jaws, you would think them
A grievance that an annoyed lion endures

22. The studs of his piercing with the spear are as
Bracelets on the wrist of a bejeweled lady

23. He drags, when he drags, the ascent of his spear
In the narrow, gushing valley

24. What lies between a garb clad with blood
Slippery, and fruits falling with hail

25. And death in the shadow of death lurking
Solemnity of dangers in endangering

26. The happiness of his face and his right hand glow
In poverty and in wealth

27. And he extends fingers toward favors
With sustenance flowing through them

28. He contains glories, gaining or defeating
Never evading them or evading

29. Stars appeared in the night of youth
If neglected, they incline toward setting

30. O star, none had a life as short
Just like the stars of daybreak

31. A crescent of days has passed, it did not
Become full, or have time for secrets

32. The eclipse rushed upon it before its time
So erased it before the chance for shining

33. And it slipped from its peers and offspring
As a star slips from stars

34. So my heart is its tomb, as though
In its fold, a secret of secrets

35. If disparaged as small, many a boastful one
Appears insignificant to onlookers

36. The stars, from the height of their positions
Appear small though they are not small

37. When some of the promising youth dies
The rest live on in his footsteps

38. I cry for him, then say consoling him
You were blessed when you left the pains of the abode

39. I dwelled with my enemies and he dwelled with his Lord
Great is the difference between his and my dwelling

40. I complain of your distance though you are somewhere
If not for misfortune, you would hear my secrets there

41. The east to the west is nearer in distance
Than that remoteness of a few yards

42. Alas! The shackles of misfortune have chained you
And the barrier of lifetimes freed your life

43. You ran as I ran toward an aim
You reached it while your father remained in the race

44. When I speak, you are the first of my speaking
When silent, you are in my thoughts

45. I hide a fire, as embers hide
Fire though blankets cover it

46. And I restrain sighs though they ascend
I restrain tears though they flow

47. The sparks of sorrow’s flint, if I indulge them
Subside, though if I disobey they hide

48. I hold back the fires of grief, and sometimes
Patience overwhelms so they release sparks

49. The garb of hypocrisy reveals what lies beneath it
So when I dress in it, I am bare

50. Did my eyelids shorten or widen between them
Or are my eyes pictured without lashes?

51. Tears dried until it was as though their deception
When the eyes squeeze shut, the ridge of a mountain

52. If drowsiness donned attire between my lids
To the flowing tears, what lies between would connect

53. I give life to nights of darkness though they kill me
And the gleam of lights kills them

54. Until I saw the dawn raise its palm
With light, fluttering like a tent of mist

55. Dawn has immersed the stars, as though a flood
Surged and erased the streams

56. The inflammation of entrails has grayed my parting hair
This radiance is flames of that fire

57. The barren tree has sprouted and every growing branch
The enclosure of desolation toward blossoming

58. Similarity is attracted so why the whiteness
Of his parting from the whiteness of one with aversion?

59. It wishes the loyal white hair and the crack
Of fleeting betraying youth were my hair dye

60. The prime of youth and its splendor have flown from the world
So when it ends, my glory has ended

61. I deemed it short in distance and its virtues
To me are not few

62. We increase in worry the more we gain wealth
While poverty is utter poverty in amassing

63. What exceeds provision is left lost
To an event, or heir, or naked

64. I pity my envier for the heat
Their chests contained of coal

65. They saw God’s work in me so their eyes
Are in Paradise while their hearts are in Hell

66. I am not to blame though I hid my merits
As though I veiled the face of my day

67. I concealed them in my humility so their necks strained
High above the screens

68. Among men are those known and unknown
As among stars are those setting and revolving

69. People are indistinguishable in their income
While peoples vary in their output

70. My life! I have tread their paths of sublimity
So they are blind but have not fallen on my traces

71. If they saw with their hearts they would see
But the blindness of insights is the blindness of sights

72. Why not emulate the endeavors of the noble and attain?
Or surrender to the turns of fate?

73. Generosity and loyalty have gone from the world
Embodied only in poetry

74. The treacheries of trusted ones and others have spread
Until we suspect the sight of visions

75. Sometimes the forbearing takes support from the ignorant
No good in an ally without a comrade

76. God’s blows are jewels, for they
Are the blunting of villains and the polishing of the noble

77. Was I anything but iron so He stamped me
A sword and unleashed me, wild?

78. A time like the mother dog who raises her young
And wards off the harm of the hissing snake