1. Shall I thus remain forever independent,
With fate making me now honored, now abased?

2. Shall I be content with the acts of the lowly,
Fearing death and satisfied with the least?

3. I have seen the rich among men,
When lacking in merit, despised and debased.

4. Without my loss are the perishing of spears
And the sailing of ships, pitching and rolling;

5. So I have continued attacking the heights
Until I attain all the glory and fame,

6. When your heart aspires in its time,
What excuse for your face to be humbled?

7. Come, strive with your soul to attain it,
Look not for "perhaps" or "it may be."

8. When a man gains not his wish after striving,
Continuous effort, not fate, trips his feet.

9. And avoid the weakness that hinders resolve
That would keep the girls closely confined,

10. And roam, not minding the fewness of friends,
In sadness traversing plains and bare hills,

11. Till the highlands lead you back home,
Where you become the proudest and best.

12. Of goodly repute and the best of lands,
A preserve inviolate wherein none is my peer.

13. Accompany none save the limit of pride,
With lightning that cleaves as it strikes forth its blows,

14. And days when the night with tumultuous speech
Refuses to lend to the slander its ear;

15. While might raises the low to high station,
And we see degradation esteemed the most high.

16. Your nature, Abu't-Tayyib, is bounteous;
The best gifts of the noble are yours.

17. I have tested the ways of these people,
And cease not to try them, time and again.

18. I have found none except you who will choose
The best course and keep reputation intact.

19. So my heart, since the time it discerned you,
Feels you the dearest to it and most sweet.

20. And my voice, when at dawn I thought of you
As a powerful arm and a comrade, was freed.

21. Would that you were unheeding of virtues
That make speech seem a trifling thing!

22. You sleep to doing good like the beasts,
And hearing evil are ever alert and awake,

23. Stretching out grasping hands toward disgrace,
Toward glory measuring spans with a cubit.

24. A youth on whom glorious deeds have conferred fame,
Whom noble deeds brought early success;

25. And his envier then wanders distraught,
Though nearly guided to glory, goes astray.

26. I sense your nature, so like the Samhar's,
And your ambition still loftier and higher.

27. You join a bold heart with a countenance
Perfect in radiance, glowing and beautiful.

28. Bright as the lightning flash when it gleams,
Clear as the crescent moon when it appears,

29. And the brave man's heart is a sword; if
He presents himself, a polished sword blade.

30. He clouds o'er the day of pleasure's beginnings,
And brightens the day of turmoil and care,

31. Expands his eulogist through his nobility,
And grants him increase on what he before gave.

32. He tucks up his skirts for the.ray of valour,
And trails his garment in generous gift,

33. Now returning with earnest, assiduous work,
And now with a wine-flask frothing and full;

34. Cast to him by time things magnificent,
The most glorious ever known to this world.

35. He guards well their meaning when day has sped,
And bears their burden when day returns.

36. With you they are like the flow of the pond,
Or the smoothness of a sword blade or a lawn.

37. Without you they would be, like others before them,
Too proud for praise, too noble for song.

38. Long have I guarded their honor inviolate,
Trained them from all men's approaches to flee.