1. If you are not an obeyed king,
Be an obedient slave to your Creator.

2. If you do not own the whole world
As you wish, leave it entirely.

3. Be a king who attained great kingdom,
Or an ascetic who settled in al-Baqee.

4. Thus is the elephant, either with a king,
Or roaming freely in the wilderness.

5. Both kingship and asceticism
Allow the young man to attain sublime honor.

6. And whoever is content in this life with less
Than these two, lives in it disgraced.

7. So abandon moderation, as the sublime
Is attained by those who seek the difficult.

8. And devote yourself to asceticism, for it is better
Than a kingdom which perishes quickly.