1. I am satisfied with lovers lesser than the one who pleases me,
And I am indebted to those whom debts are paid but they do not pay.

2. The nights have bitterly wounded me over and over,
And have made me suffer unending sorrows.

3. The days have folded away the instruments of passion from my heart,
And youth has untied the firm knots of determination from me.

4. For me, in the shining eyes there remains no more pleasure,
Nor any yearning in the passing days of youth.

5. Today the separation from the shade of my adolescence was evident,
And it changed the blackness of my excuse to whiteness.

6. There came to me, from the distance between us, glances
That hint with their eyelids without complete closure.

7. And a friend who sees my heart wounded
By his biting words, blow after blow.

8. So I excuse my enemies if my own kin
Cut from my branch and squeeze from my sap.

9. When my relative shoots his arrow at my honor,
I excuse the distant people even if they shoot at my honor.

10. Does he not realize that after him
I have set my aspirations only toward the exalted?

11. And I have made the nose of every envious person
My shoe, and the cheek of every angry person as my tread.

12. And how many positions lower than your glory have I held
While slipping between misfortunes or fleeing!

13. And I have confronted those who were your enemies before their confrontation,
So he blamed me after the disagreement and hatred.

14. Indeed, kinship between us has nearly dissolved,
So act with forbearance that cannot be faulted if it dissolves.

15. I have seen the imaginings of filial disobedience as beautiful,
So do not let the lightning of harm be truly flashing.

16. And do not let those who love me gloat should we together
Be miserly, clad only in rough wool.

17. When I am forbearing while the arrows are numerous,
One like you is more fitting to be cast with arrows and be forbearing.

18. Upon resentments that, were they in the full moon, it would not shine,
And were they in the branch, it would not leaf, and were they in the arrow, it would not fly.

19. I have insulted you while living with estrangement and moving on,
And some of the misfortunes before the day of the departed young man.

20. I call upon you, so return soon, for when
My patience wears out, I will move on as you have moved on.

21. It would have been fair by the judgment of obligations had he,
Seeing my slowness in glory, been excessive in spurring me.

22. So how could that be when the proclamations of my resolve
Have not emerged, nor have the exalted found fault with my expansion or my restraint?

23. When he frowned upon my eyes because of a mote,
And was displeased with the like of me, then for whom would he be pleased?

24. My friend, my healing is not for the first critic,
Nor is the foam of my medicine for one insisting on bitterness.

25. So say to the enemies, bite your lips, for you
Have made your hands recognize me by the biting.

26. They have undone what their first ones constructed
And we have braced it. Alas! There is no construction after destruction.

27. And each day dishonor from them dyes
The robe of a man, and dishonor remains fixed on the pillars.

28. They want to conceal the rifts between us,
Yet the hatreds have screamed out from the inflamed, bloodshot eyes.

29. I remembered my guards, and the guarding in the courtyard,
For it has the pulses of sweat stimulated by throbbing.

30. I invited you before those who have no morning glow,
And I said to them, return to the pleasing morals!

31. Return me as clear water before I carry motes,
And do not return me except to the limpid drink.

32. And heal my wounds before fever prevents
My refusal or brings regrets upon your pasturing of me.

33. And before the enemies spread between us
The coolness of malice−in whatever length and width.

34. And do not mount the grey-eyed wolf
Without epochs folding countries or goals.

35. Fear the shame of a war whose instigator
Will not prevail over peers except by retreating.

36. And do not bring into your homes the untruth of undutifulness−
I adjure you by God in the pure lineage.

37. I see it with the eye of assumption as a red blaze
That will lead to the shame of consequences or empty.

38. One who cannot bemy bending to dishonor or my yielding
Disdains me from the people.

39. I direct the arrows of speech between him and I
So he hurts me by snatching them away despite my honor.

40. And I hold back what I have not set my tongue to in my blood
And I have not harmed my limbs with my biting or chewing.

41. When anger kindles between my ribs
And my mouth is about to utter what it would utter,

42. I intercede for myself through myself, so it holds back
Some of my rage, and I beseech some of me over some of me.