1. They said "He's silent today," I said "Wait,
Haven't my excuses reached the poets?

2. I want nothing to do with political poetry after
I found the hearts of the people empty of it,

3. Nor do I want parties after I tested
My experiences with parties and leaders.

4. They're equal - this one's not good to me
And that one didn't do me wrong.

5. Shall I love a group that doesn't return a greeting
And shun a group that doesn't feel the estrangement?

6. How much virtue of mine did people see as
Extravagance, and how much right as generosity!

7. I can do without leaving what makes me
Prolong my wandering and vanity.

8. They attacked me with papers - yet these
Are more effective than soldiers' decrees.

9. I was loyal to some people with what I owed them,
But couldn't be loyal to others.

10. My brothers angered me until I was as if
I'm an enemy demanding payment from them.

11. Yesterday, what my hands possessed was worthless,
So will what my hands write be worthless?

12. Of life's grievances, my accusation by the intimate ones
Whose defender I was in my heedlessness.

13. I wished for someone to buy my life with its burden
But found no profitable deal or bargain.

14. My poetry hurts only me with loss of patronage
If it hurts others, their loss of nobility.

15. Excuse the art I carried so much
And was nothing but tribulation and affliction.