1. Alas, my bride blamed me and reproached
Despite that I am more chaste and beautiful than he who spoke

2. And when she saw that the color of my head had changed
To whiteness from the color that was first

3. She peered at the wonderful gray hair that she saw
And said, "Are you like me, when others your age are unblemished?"

4. Both of us, old age afflicted, so it was as if
Arrows targeted the parting spot and pierced

5. And I make the brimming cup my boon companion, rising
In the predawn to drink from it and draw fully

6. A smooth man disputes it with me, not brazen,
A leader of commercial caravans, compliant

7. When overcome by the cup, neither sullen
Nor cheerless without it, nor from it does he smile

8. And my friend is not faultfinding, nor one who
Berates the miserly miser and is miserly himself

9. We have a need for candor after lifetimes
When it seemed best they were wronged, so they endured

10. The pleasures of the cup's mate are our own, possessed,
And a docile camel that we loaded up and departed on

11. And a vigorous riding beast whose might we exposed
And another in a finely woven garment, clothed

12. And a poker for stirring the fire that makes sounds as if
Its echo comes from the thickets of night, conjured

13. When I heard the speech of the humorous
If there is nothing in it I understand, I do not listen

14. I interrupted his attempt to converse with me
Sometimes with cloaks, at other times with honey

15. He likes the closeness of people to him but through him
To anyone, proximity is not brought

16. He drew so near I said, "None has approached humans thus
Save an ignorant one or one gone astray"

17. The extent of nobility overwhelms me whenever I rebuke him
A tingling runs through his face as he draws near

18. If he turns his face toward the blowing wind, his
Ears respond, mouth open to receive the meal carried

19. A collector until he collected enough from one occupation
Whose friend is poverty, who does not gain wealth

20. It is as if the smoke of smoldering bushes mixed with his complexion
He wraps his core and is shrouded

21. Insightful into the thickets of plague, when it creeps
He cries out, hides from holy war, and cuts a fine figure

22. You see him fat when times are good, yet he is
As if in lean times he is weakened or wasted away

23. He was accustomed to live off prey, yet he is like
A filled waterskin if he faces the blowing wind

24. And Hamsh, keen of eye, is like
One walking uphill with effort though unencumbered

25. He can nearly see what no single eye sees
Stirring up what the dust hid buried

26. When they are with me, I say "If you knew me
Do you not know that I carry only what I need?"

27. A crow and wolf watch when I will find
A place of rest to camp or settle down to sleep

28. They raid what seems easy to attain, yet both
Will fail to attain what they yearned

29. As if two valiant heroes traveled together
Passing by us, if not for a stop and camp

30. They found only the campsite of a small she-camel
That keeps raiders away, noble and congregated

31. Her enclosure is under rocks by her neighbors
And a resting place for sheep whose joints never fail them

32. And an exhausted nursing camel calf bends that is as if
A rain shower from a valley stream quenched his thirst

33. And the place of my Tall and Bent-Over
Who jerks if the teat is pulled from the top

34. And reddish sheep gone thirsty though night's
Final slumber passed and left them wretched

35. Dust blankets them as if it lowered
Itself upon their hindquarters, docile and submissive

36. And a grimacing one with a downcast gaze, fearful
Of what the mighty earth bears and carries

37. My weapons clanked and I stared at them
And I ordered myself - what should I do?

38. Should I ready them fearing misfortunes? They
Threaten man's peace of mind or should I trust?

39. I swore by the Merciful - none but Him -
An oath of a devout man that I will not violate

40. I will seek the highest point on my saddlecloth submitting
To the One who gives life and causes death

41. He is the Protector, the Waterer in the night while I sleep
Dead to the world, overwhelmed by fatigue

42. Safe from the cunning lion, though enraged
To the points of its fangs the deadly venom clings

43. So when the Hyenas turned away I scared them off
And a brazen hero with a weapon rose up

44. She descended swiftly - her heart did not fail her
Nor did her eye neglect the fear of the whip

45. Her dangling udder cuts off the milking of sheep
When sheep sounds mingle as milking commences

46. Rounded of teat - the butter of her meat
Like the butter churned from milk with paddle

47. And she has a bucket-like udder and elbow
Loose from the milk, untied at the base

48. And a bucket worn out that her teats drip into
When her water rises and trickles

49. And a strainer that removes impurities as if
With clear water on a basin, it is cleansed

50. So who is for rhymes? Who can recite them
When anklet lies still and necklace settles?

51. One says yet knows not what he speaks
And of those who speak are ones who speak poorly

52. He composes them until the compositions stand straight
Yet he falls short of what can represent them

53. You have sufficed - do not seek a poet among people
Who gleans what I gleaned from them