1. Impossible, by God's life, this regret,
False are my complaints, sorrow, and injustice.

2. I have no illness I complain of, no harm
I was stricken by, or that passes and hurts.

3. The hours pass me by, diverse, swift,
I go about my work in them and complete it.

4. I have no concerns but the duty of life ending
As an illness cured ends decisively.

5. So gain in this life my life while it exists,
For in it is secret joy pure of heart.

6. I attain, praise God, comfort and pleasure,
And none other is laden with what I gained.

7. I sufficed the world my evil, and no evil to me,
And the whole world is naught but those who are anxious.

8. Neither did I say complaint nor pride, but rather
My heart converses with itself and speaks to me.

9. I turn over the folds of life searching
For a deed one day the man is branded by.

10. So I go with a heart God knows is pure
And a soul crumbling over its faults.

11. I learned the cycles of life entire,
And saw in it what shines and what is dark.

12. I found it obligatory war, and only
In it the bold gain spoils and plunder.

13. So I provisioned my soul and shunned its turmoil,
I watch from afar its severity so I may be safe.

14. And I can do without people, living
By myself, free, enjoying pleasures.

15. Like a bird in the thickets roaming,
Going and returning joyfully singing.

16. And my life is a stream that flowed rippling,
Its events and pebbles smiling.

17. Kissing the lips of the sun its rays,
And in it the full moon and stars washing their faces.

18. When the night startles the meadows visiting it
The morning breeze comes greeting it.

19. Cheering it with the scent and perfume, reciting
To it the talk of flowers subtly speaking.

20. And telling it the secret of the sky though
It is obscured by this lowering darkness.

21. Tongues whose eloquence beauty shakes the branches
That cannot be translated to any but them.

22. But I wearied my feelings and isolation
So here I am like wood rotting and splitting.

23. Oh my isolation, you exhausted the water of my youth
So I slowly grew old and decrepit.

24. And no work but a pen and desk,
So spread what woe I have and compose it.

25. And kill my books reading them as though
They fortified me, a well-armed army.

26. I turn in them the faces of fate searching
So they reveal their secrets to me encrypted or clear.

27. And my life passes in pleasure and amusement
And I while away the nights ignorant learning.

28. I see between them generations, diverse faces,
Some cheerful and some frowning.

29. Passing in bands as though their lines
Were ants on a den swarming and cramming.

30. Pulpits and ideas in them speaking,
Springs and fresh flowing sweet or bitter.

31. I travel in them each day and my volume
Seeks annihilation, changing and confused.

32. I sacrifice my heart atop their altar and
Their pages are but burning embers.

33. And I leave them empty-handed in sorrow
Lamenting their hardness each day, resigned.

34. So O my books, what business have I and you
That I was content blinding my heart while you shed light?

35. I deserted you so go about your way
To where the worrying dust makes you vanish.

36. And the army of moths rises above you invading
To avenge me for what you reaped and store.

37. May God preserve one who sold conscience for a coin
While I value more than what he sold a small coin.

38. And the honor of a person is but their conscience
While you know the honor of flesh, as I do.

39. So understand the honor of flesh is forfeited
For a sensed, embodied purpose.

40. But honor of the soul forfeited, lost,
This, among people, I do not understand.

41. I wronged my life protecting and veiling it
While I in what my life dragged am more unjust.

42. Preventing, punishing, exerting, confused
My care, Lord, though my chest brims over.

43. And I have covered the distance except a little
And I will cover it, pleasing or forced.

44. Comforting my heart that life has an end
With no return I fear and fall silent.

45. Consoled that I loved in life once
I hoped with it to realize what I dreamed of.

46. I would see horizons smile joyfully
So inspiration descended on me and I was inspired.

47. I felt firm resolve it contained
A heart though pained by its pleasures.

48. As though my observing eyes
Looked unto its mysteries hoping.

49. If Salma smiled, it was a radiant dawn
And if she frowned, the night confused me.

50. But she soon wearied, being weak
For love is but strength and greatness.

51. When I knew the weakness in her, that
Her mouth and heart contradicted one another.

52. I acted to beautifully part since it
Became a matter decreed between us.

53. Thus had I tested myself in passion
So I was afflicted with a wound no balm would heal.

54. And I wasted my heart infatuated, so here I am
Living without a heart, eating and drinking.

55. I see the mind in life is novel, for it came
To remove ignorance, and ignorance is ancient.

56. All old things had primacy
Preferred, honored, and revered.

57. Thus you see ignorance in the world
More beloved to them than sound reason.

58. If you surrender your heart's reins
It will lead you, commanding and controlling.

59. And build hopes for you unfulfilled
Each building of passions collapsed.

60. Then you will enter the world happy, delighted,
And exit a nursing babe weaned and fed.

61. To how much I was comforted by hope, dispelled
By a decree imposed on all creation.

62. The stars frowned at me though they
Smile at every viewer in the darkness.

63. And the edifice of my life collapsed when erect
It would rise over days, supported and built.

64. I despaired of the world stingily loving it
Its essence flows mingled in my blood.

65. Its comfort became my solace when I found
No solace, and my gain what in life I gained.

66. Content with it, on fate a fortress standing
And I for it a fortress firmer than fate.

67. It is sustenance from a guarantor Lord, and
From God provisions apportioned to creation.