1. I say to those who cry out at my suffering:
The best word lodges firmly in the ear.

2. Obey the command of Allah, your Lord! Aim straight!
The most excellent of people is he who obeys commands.

3. Reconcile your soul with trials; through them
Salvation is hoped for. Live long!

4. Avoid evil! Do not kindle its flame!
The worst of people is he who fosters evil.

5. Keep your honor always jealously guarded,
The lowest of creatures is he who guards his honor.

6. Your generosity - though your honor is not made pure by it,
And by that, one afflicted does not answer a brother's cry.

7. Through piety, gain strength in times of crisis,
The meanest of men is he who cannot do without a cook.

8. Do not turn up your nose arrogantly, Oh son of clay!
How despicable is a man, ill-natured and scowling!

9. Cook what you have observed in the fire of thought,
For food is most delicious after cooking.

10. Think of endings at beginnings, seek counsel
From the wise at times of error and confusion.

11. If the lamp of a sound mind sheds its light,
Slackening is what should most be feared.

12. Your religion cannot adorn you without faith,
So beware of being disgraced through loss!

13. Drag the tail of your glory! Shun
And live virtuously, loved by the vainglorious.

14. Pluck virtues by overlooking flaws
In the blemished - that is a clever ruse!

15. Follow the paths of high ideals through knowledge,
For the darkness of ignorance spreads like mist.

16. Be modest, modesty is the best jewelry
When poverty has clothed you in rags.

17. Do not deny your face water - let it flow -
So you are showered with praise for your flowing munificence.

18. Misfortune will come one day to the spiteful
And he will be made to taste bitter anguish.

19. Lighter for the youth than the perfume of musk
Is the stench of a rotting corpse served by flies.

20. The Lord of the cottage and the lofty palace
Is the same, and time leads to decay.

21. Do not one day hatch the egg of a secret,
For disclosing secrets is the epitome of evil.

22. Do not slander anyone and so preserve intact
Your honor, free from the filth of vices.

23. Spur on the steed of your patience,
And blunt the fangs of your treachery!

24. Prepare for time the garment of ferocity
And be a falcon, free in the air!

25. Agree with them, keep pace with them, but
Only as the wide plain bears with the drizzle.

26. Seek help from God alone, free yourself of need for them,
When the head of humiliation bows down.

27. Reject their judgments! Every judgment of theirs
Undergoes erosion and disintegration.

28. They disparage the destitute, but if he acquires wealth,
They honor him with soothing words.

29. They fawn on the wealthy, but if he becomes impoverished,
He is then shunned and abandoned.

30. One like a piece of rotten donkey meat
Is sacrificed by them - it cannot be made palatable.

31. Because of it, disasters befall, not because of a gazelle
Who has lost the comforts of life in their eyes.

32. So take shelter in God, Lord of mankind!
Other than God is a vanishing shadow.

33. And all feet seeking aid point to
Their Creator, exalted be His being!

34. So do not attribute good to other than God
And protect the head of certainty from doubt!

35. Divorce the daughter of your adversity, mother of animosity,
So you are freed from disgrace without delay.

36. Do not stay where there is deadly sin,
For sweet water turns brackish in the saline earth.

37. Send blessings on the Messenger of God and you will be
Flooded with the lights of certainty at the point of death.

38. And after your distress, you will be given ease
And be transported from your grief to joy.

39. So take from these words a lesson
And leave poetry attributed to simple raving.

40. Measure them by the standards of rhymed prose
And you will find them like songs without melody.