1. She treads delicately, and soon she will unveil herself,
And turn away the madness of your time that turned away.

2. Do not blame time for reproach,
For time knows not if it did wrong or right.

3. Groping with hands that seek to mend rifts,
Bringing all together in purpose and mending rifts.

4. It strips the lofty of their garb and divests
The mighty of their glory and their perilous attire.

5. I have missed you for a time of every absence,
And your deeds, however abject or lofty.

6. The likes of me is wronged, and yet you see me not,
When the eyes alight, showing your likes as exemplars.

7. It suffices you, you shouldered a burden commensurate
With your resilience, and your resilience bore.

8. Muhammad, long have you remained therein obstinate,
So lower your train that drags behind you.

9. And sleep, guarded and safe and secure,
For already you cowered before it fearful and debased.

10. If you pursue this matter craving,
You would be, of the wise, utterly mindless.

11. The deluded see it on me as a necklace,
And envy me it, while I see it as a shackle.

12. Not my enemies made it my station,
Nay, time itself let me down completely.

13. If they take the meanest of glories,
Then they have left the most guarded of honors.

14. Take from me one heavy-laden, remote
From lightening his load or slipping down.

15. The mother of sorrows collapsed intoxicated,
And I had sapped her, drink by drink, and ascent by ascent.

16. How can the two novice poets belittle me
When I have belittled him until he withered away?

17. The nature of one bent on dying heedlessly
Cares not if he is exalted or brought low.

18. I am the man Nizār came to know
As one who planted firmly the most glorious saplings.

19. I pass by the falsehoods of foes tasting,
And I aim at the rabble of enemies arrows.

20. Is not my father sufficient pride and glory,
Amplitude, loftiness, and nobility for me?

21. And before you he honored the days with glory
And lowered with loftiness until he ate.

22. If he sits back he has sought glories,
So he hung them up and connected them and fulfilled them.

23. And my soul, you know I have no wings,
That refused me to be disgraced or debased.

24. Why then do I grieve when I have gained glory
That gives me all that conveys me to glorious stations?

25. When the seats became vacant for the loyalist,
How soon was the loyalist deposed!

26. And while they say, “He has wearied of it,”
Until they say, “He did not weary of it.”

27. With your wealth you attained it, and it sufficed you of shame,
You attained it through glory, indeed you attained it!

28. Whoever found the path to me difficult
He finds the path to you easy.

29. What is that but for them to say,
“One who makes much effort beats one who makes little.”

30. You have no place in it because I
Left upon you a surplus that gave you shade.

31. It exulted when I attained it, my beloved,
And had another attained it, it would have slipped away.

32. It healed an old wound with its dress,
And when I removed it, I was healed of my wound.

33. If he gains it, we disdained it and underestimated
Its value, and overrated its price.

34. His munificence was in that no munificence,
And our stinginess was in that no stinginess.

35. None is duped but one who assumed control,
And none fortunate but one who relinquished.