1. O affliction of the heavens and earth, wait!
No more of you remains for me to endure

2. My crisis as it is, no hand
Can find a solution for it

3. The mortgagee still held hostage
His contract renewed, nothing new

4. But more constraints and bitterness
Payment terms extended, obligation made longer

5. Thirty years seen as a grace
A favor, kindness from them

6. The land takes his strength
And gives while he's most generous of heart and mind

7. Watering it with sweat pouring from him
The sweetest, purest water

8. Yet in its fertility he starves and strips naked
In its fertility he melts and decays

9. How can the meager land revive one who
Has no means to repay his creditor in full

10. It despaired of paying its debt though he
Would be relieved to be rid of it

11. Strange that I congratulate on the settlement
Those who bear the heaviest burden

12. It eluded me though I found no way
To escape it or path to another

13. I'm left without benefit after wearing myself out
In fruitless toil and struggle over it

14. I know not if the easy has become hard
Or the hard made easy after this

15. A martyr to hardship and anxiety
Like a martyr of battles, prisoner and slain

16. Who will grant me refuge from those
Who constantly burden me with debt and count slackness as respite

17. Setting fire to my crops yet demanding
Fruit from them, never leaving a shadow

18. He who had my favor and good deeds
Saw my tribulation and fled, deserted

19. He scorned true companions and relied
On the adversary, elevating and exalting him

20. Meeting the enemy with might is better
Than pandering to him with guile and trickery

21. Men's greed for power over us grew
Until it cast them down and humiliated

22. The enemy I often sought to placate
Now lords over them, makes them submit

23. They enabled him to control affairs though he
Was a vigilant watcher imposing his will

24. I've borne what fate ordained
So my reward is blame and rebuke

25. I've hidden myself though calamity is evident
I've hesitated though events rush ahead

26. O men of the times, you've done well what
You said, and the times call for action

27. Its mood cleared for you, so you felt
Content to transform and alter the state of affairs

28. You guaranteed continued rule, with full
Authority over matters, beginning to end

29. You came together, and some opponents stronger
In mutual harm and greater injustice

30. You solved the debt crisis as you had
Solved the political crisis before

31. Regain the poet farmer's mortgaged land
So he can be independent as you are

32. The country cannot bear my poetry unless
I own in it a house and field

33. I'm deserving of good as long as
I see all people on earth as deserving

34. He who endured disasters as a child
Most deserves tranquility of mind as an elder

35. In my village I confide my complaints
My writings and poems enough for me

36. Indifferent, I say not "Would that for myself..."
Nor say "Perhaps..."

37. Forgiving of time, I see in it
No weakness, no defect

38. Meeting my needs face-to-face is better
Than meeting this blameworthy good-for-nothing

39. All who make promises will meet
Their seekers with lies and deception

40. In my mornings weaker,
In my evenings greater in ignorance

41. For others' sake if I seek rights
For others' sake if I seek justice

42. The essence of life: to unite
My people's views and bring harmony