1. My friend, life has no sweetness
And I have no desire for it like an old man.

2. The nights pass me by, long with sorrow,
As if a long line of spears has passed by me.

3. I belittle pleasures until it was as if
I was saturated with them since I was a boy.

4. I see this world and it irritates my eyelid,
Like the rays of sun hitting a sleepy eye.

5. Yes, this world to my experienced eye
Is just specks, while to the foolish it is kohl.

6. Have you not seen the wonders in it
That bring you something more amazing every day?

7. The sun is veiled from the eyes of the fascinated,
While to the sharp-eyed hyena its neck is exposed.

8. Fins are submerged in the depths of the seas,
While every claw has missed just a drop.

9. May God ugly your world, which is mostly just
A beautiful façade over hidden ugliness.

10. So how can life in it be sweet to one who sees
That ugliness with unblinking eyes?

11. The ugliest thing in it is the safety you seek from it
That in the morning, God protect you, is the hardest thing to attain.

12. You see something offered so if you seek it, it disappears,
And the closest thing to finding it is the far horizon.

13. It is as if you want to rob it, and it has fallen
In love with its captor, tortured with passion.

14. It passes by so if you seek it, it dissolves,
Having the nature of an ignorant, fickle child.

15. The closest companion to you is every hater
And the furthest intimacy from you is every beloved.

16. I have a choking grief that time does not soothe
When it lodges in its throat like an arrowhead.

17. My grief is only that which brings despair to consolation,
For I have not been one to be consoled by sweet drink.

18. Oh choking grief between clarity and it,
Its concerns exhaust a bird from any drinking place.

19. When my soul speaks to me of it, deceiving me,
It speaks to me of the impossible, the unreal.

20. And if I speak to it gently, then my words to it
Are nothing but ignorance compounded.

21. So I am confused, as fate toys with the young man
And places him in the most rugged circumstance.

22. Beautiful in his eyes is what he will never attain,
While what is beneath it is the limit of polished swords.

23. So he is neither asking nor attaining,
So say what you will of his state and be amazed.

24. But these people have legislated for themselves
Laws not sent down upon them by God through any prophet.

25. Laws of separation, while God is unified,
And there is no caller nor causer but Him.

26. They have separated the essences based on their names,
As if we separated west from east.

27. Those are only marvelous names,
Which you have called while serious or playing.

28. Empty, with no verses sent down about them by God,
Even if you interpret them in the Holy Book.

29. Balls of ivory which you have hastened to dye
With various colors, the work of the desirer.

30. And you come saying, "Beware what we have dyed red,
And believe what we have dyed green."

31. And beware that you do not join this one
With that one, for whoever does has sinned.

32. There is no proof, for all your balls of ivory,
Whether ignored or colored, are the same.

33. And if there is a difference between them, maybe
The ugliest is the one with more beautiful dye.