1. I complain as the lonely bird complains
And I stopped complaining as the poet stopped

2. I am wronged but I am no wrongdoer
I am abandoned but did not flee

3. Why am I not rewarded for my poetry?
Why am I not rewarded for my prose?

4. What book denies the worker his wages
And favors the drunkard and the gambler?

5. It destroys the house of merit, knowledge and light
And builds tombs like the starry towers

6. It adorns the crumbling bones with splendor
And hurls rocks at radiant faces

7. When I die deprived, which monotheist
Has more right than the prosperous gloaters?

8. I am no slacker, no affliction in me
But He who assigned me is wanting

9. The Jews get abundance and they are treacherous
The hireling gets his wages and he is cautious

10. You removed me with no justification
And the good tidings you gave me never ended

11. Were two years’ wages too much
For one who endured the gambler’s despair?

12. For twenty long years I was devoted
With all my soul and conscience

13. Dismissed, deprived, yet in myself
I have the patience of Serbia and Bulgaria

14. My knowledge that I merit well
Battles my knowledge that my luck is cursed

15. If my loyalty to my people is a crime
Then I greet pardon with forgiveness

16. If my aspirations are forbidden to me
Can I be blamed for my silent sorrow?

17. How often I stayed up with the stars
To guard you while the king slept

18. I filled the government’s mails with letters to you
So why did those papers settle there?

19. I ask you about them though I know
They are your precious gems when you lack gems

20. They want me to find fault with you
And so lose you at my present loss

21. Without an emir or minister to help
What can the honest guardian do?

22. I wanted from your affection only provision
As the traveler packs some little food

23. I shall leave your wide valley unwillingly
Memories of you jostling me

24. Oh, would that when harm is inevitable
I may go as a wounded prisoner or exile