1. The sighs reveal not the inner passion,
For that kept hidden is like that displayed.

2. My sides convulse each time desire stirs my heart,
My skin grows too tight for its contents.

3. How can the tears, O eye, be held back now
That my eyelids are overridden and stream down my cheek?

4. If I pour forth my tears like fire kindled by flint
My branches will wither from the spark.

5. Thus my eyelids shield my eyes in this life
And my soul shields my anguish in its flame.

6. I swear by what the veil covers and by
The necks of the young women inclining or straight.

7. That gentle life has gone with one who goes,
The fading twilight sun at its zenith’s edge.

8. When they say he has departed his course
And dust settles on him from the side of his grave,

9. It is as if one of his hands lies severed before him
While fate made the other hand but a stump.

10. Time has cast at me, from where I see not,
My heart’s core with piercing, deliberate blow.

11. So wonder not that I have shed my skin,
For lighter than it is what scratched my hide.

12. Had a bouquet wilted, its green would have faded,
As the spark flashes when struck from flint.

13. A raincloud waters his grave, a forgiveness
Drawing behind it the train of a twisting channel.

14. When I say his aspirations have weakened,
Lightning cracks and thunder roars in protest!

15. A sword whose edge time has tarnished and blunted
Rests a while in its sheath then back again slides.

16. A spear those coats of mail dared with their rings
Scattering the points gathered and pressed as one.

17. A steed that raced on till the goal was attained,
Stopping short the breath in the lungs of racers.

18. A cloud climbed up till its rain was let loose,
Raining the time of plenteous life.

19. A spring shone bright and behind it
Praise, like the praise for the time of flowers.

20. In grief we bite the fingers for death
Though biting avails not, nor brings gain.

21. Can the stricken avail himself by biting his fingers,
Even if he dies from rage at the lion of meadows?

22. Calamities of fortune make its loss easier to bear,
Convincing us misfortunes occur naturally.

23. Fate befalls him whom the high plain exposes,
Were he in a gorge deep down in the earth or wilderness.

24. And he is unharmed whom spears surround,
In the hands of youths, reddened with training.

25. What loss if he attains not the fate of an immortal?
Who has attained, or will attain, endless fate?

26. My tribes have robbed me of nights, yet
They left my eyes no tears, wringing them dry.

27. They have saddened me, leaving no sorrow for my eye
Save what they have wrung out from my passion.

28. Your consolation?—days are lions
That treat the bold like red fleecy coats for winter.

29. When, from their bounty, they let him taste pleasure
They return him scorched of ribs from blows.

30. They allure the staunch of heart away from resolve
And conduce the joints to flex like bends of Indian reeds.

31. The envious wished you ill but their poor counsel
Only brought failure; counsel can lead one astray.

32. So let no harm keep sheathed your valiance and forbearance
Now that enemies have unbound the ties of affection.

33. They shook and pawed the ground insolently against you
Then left without gaining a thing concluded or bound.

34. Again and again they rode it but, shame,
So plummeting the fall from their ridden endeavor!

35. How long will you close your eyes to bitter provocation
And your glance fix on one whose sight is dimmed?

36. If you do not reconcile, your foes will multiply against you
And the sin of blaming, if you indulge it, spreads.

37. Was not that distance but withdrawing
From the scheming hateful and wretchedly envious?

38. You came like the rising full moon whose light
Returns the skies their pristine greeting at dawn.

39. How your cunning enemies have hatched plots against you,
Like venom flows in the blood of a leprous humpback!

40. You ignored, then rose up with resolve
And pulled from their hearts the heat of hatred.

41. The squint-eyed you have provoked with your deeds
And he turns away unable to repeat or express.