1. My complaint to the Exalted Master
About a guest who forced his way inside

2. An unwelcome heavy guest, constantly
Flowing and leaking without restraint

3. A guest like the plague of the house barging in
Without notice or permission to enter

4. Visiting my nose despite my disdain
Making it a fortress for his unwanted visit

5. I know not if it is my face or his
With two open doors between us

6. He stays put, not leaving his place
As if fearing he'd become invisible

7. Do not be fooled if he seems to leave
For the realities of things are in his heart

8. His leaving means no trace will be seen
While his exit is but for returning again

9. Why am I afflicted with him, so hateful, red
Like embers stoked in fires aflame?

10. If he disappears for a bit, just briefly
He'll be back again, circling like a warden

11. Wherever I stand, he leaves around me
Spots of blood, as if I were Antar the hero

12. All around me his spray is scattered
As if I were in an arena of battle

13. Or the field of the spears with their cups
Filled with the nectar of grapes so fine

14. Or the rose petals strewn in the garden
Visited by the faces of lovely gazelles

15. My nose drips with me like a sprinkler
Watering meadows of anemone flowers

16. They bring me yellow handkerchiefs
That return dyed deepest red from his stains

17. Has any alchemist cured me with elixir?
Impossibly, I've become one of proof

18. So I string coral from sulfur, though far
Coral lies from the burning sulfur’s domain

19. The stoplight described it so well
With its red, yellow—all in a blink

20. Because of it, I've come to hate any red
Except the blush of a beautiful cheek

21. I’ve tried it and known it and understood
Its aim to stir up chaos within

22. I’ve grasped the secret behind its rage
A bull let loose in a Spanish ring

23. A dyer of clothes, his only color is red
With countless shades though his palette contains

24. The earth composed from my blood a sunset
Like the horizon graced by its redness

25. I've strayed from any anemone
Even the anemone’s great gardener

26. Two seas meet in my face, and between
Lies the isthmus of perfect composition

27. Two seas, but no pearl comes out
Just the dissolving of coral instead

28. For those in love whose eyelids
Shed blood in tears, this makes four, not two

29. Always when sorrow is apportioned
Two arrows strike me from the batch

30. The red armies have attacked me
As if we were two foes in Korea

31. The Exalted Lord will aid me against the tyrant
The unjust oppressor will meet with loss

32. He cannot hide until his time is up
Does he think I fear his abandonment?

33. A hateful age shows you only hatefulness
Like specks paining both eyes

34. It meets you with choking, binding, staring,
Kissing, tenderness, pressing together

35. And all those I loved, their gaze upon seeing me
Is like a sucker fish when my eyes spot it

36. Oh what a time whose prosperity and woe
Are the same, its bliss and agony equal

37. The doctor was baffled by my condition
His reply: when both eyes come together

38. Shrugging shoulders, flipping pages, eyebrows raised
All were helpless to treat me, to my frustration

39. My heart found ease leaving these pharmacists
Who treat spirit's illness for profit's temptation

40. I left them since I am no Qarun and delighted
In the herbal shop owner's little stand

41. God has stripped their hearts of all compassion
For the ailing children of mankind

42. Were it not for some of their kindness and patience
No sick soul among the red could endure the pain

43. My hope is in the Protector alone
Healer of souls and bodies in every way

44. In this life and the next, by His grace and pardon
He will meet me and give me the finest rewards

45. Requiting those of highest aspirations with goodness
For their goodness, with utmost benefaction

46. Were it not for His generosity and presence
I'd have left this land long ago

47. I gift Him this literary piece
An honor it cherishes to touch with a kiss

48. May God keep Him and sustain me by His side
Proclaiming the glad tidings, wishes of ease

49. And God protects me from my illness fears
God cures me with the cure that is complete