1. They have not mended what the slanderers tore in me, stitching and patching;
Say to me - is it an envier or a compassionate friend?

2. Every day the sunset glow visits my house because of their talk,
while the dawn brightens your home.

3. And for how long will I be thrown back onto their hands,
Constantly slandered and burned?

4. How often is refined gold tested
Until its essence appears and its beauty shines through?

5. They find my honor sweet and pollute it
While their dishonorable honor is spat on.

6. They unloaded their faults onto me; they only
Found a remedy in slandering me, so they tore me apart.

7. Who can I find that will cover his friend’s fault if it appears
Or believe me if I speak the truth?

8. When the forbearing casts his friend’s secret intentionally,
The fool is more deserving of affection.

9. Whoever slanders people thinking he will test
The sincere - the silent friend is wiser.

10. When the mouths shine mocking me,
It knows not which is a mouth or a tooth that shines.

11. Vulgarity cannot influence his hearing
And the words of blame slide off him and slip away.

12. Time has changed so there is no generous horse to hope for
In calamities, and no sympathetic friend.

13. Oppression has overwhelmed me, so every spacious place is narrow
If I speak in it, and every rope is suffocating.

14. I have no will to ambition though ambitious
And today is darker than the night of tribulation.

15. Leave me be, for fate wears out my resolve
And pulls away the hopes I clung to.

16. Death runs through the regions of our time
As if the blows of fate hunt it down.