لَعَمري لَقَد أَوصَيتُ أَمسِ بِحاجَتي

فَتىً غَيرَ ذي قَصدٍ عَليَّ وَلا رَؤُف

By my life, yesterday I entrusted my need

to a young man with neither purpose toward me nor compassion,

وَلا عارِفاً ما كانَ بَيني وَبَينَهُ

وَمِن خَيرِ ما أَدلى بِهِ المَرءُ ما عَرَف

nor any knowledge of what lay between him and me.

Among the best things a person can put forward is what he knows.

وَما كانَ ما رَجَّيتُ مِنهُ فَفاتَني

بِأَوَّلِ خَيرٍ مِن أَخي ثِقَةٍ صُرِف

And what I had hoped for from him, only to miss it,

was not the first good thing diverted from a trusted brother.