Sol 6.1

  1. I lay sleepless, and the cares at hand stirred me.

    And a young man's worry visits him by night and early morning.

  2. I have a friend who has aroused my suspicion—or I have wronged him.

    Such are two disputants: one righteous, the other wicked.

  3. When he speaks, he blames me and excuses himself.

    And in God the wronged has strength and a defender.

  4. And I am a man who has—and I say this deliberately,

    To do what a man does knowingly—

  5. Two tongues: one honeyed, to which I am attached,

    And another, keen-edged, on which my whole heart is set.

  6. Both spend the night with me; then each, when it goes forth in the morning,

    Is adept at every word that people have spoken.

  7. And the one of them that encountered rough going was

    On paths that asses had already opened up.

  8. So I said—and did not withhold my counsel from him—

    And a man has an admonisher he does not see, and a restrainer:

  9. If you seek freedom from blame, then avoid

    The vicinity of every affair attended by excuses.

  10. For excuses may hand a man over to destruction,

    So he perishes; and offenses may destroy the innocent.

  11. And a bad poet, deluded by a succession

    Of those who inflated their words for him: 'You are a poet!'

  12. I turned upon him once, and left him

    Scorning what he had been content with before,

  13. With a swift-running verse, easy in its rhyme,

    Like an artisan's stitching, without any gaps.

  14. I spoke, and its rhyme did not defeat me;

    And speech has visible gateways and shortcuts.

  15. He keeps sleep from his eye, though drowsy—

    The weary traveler, when he reaches the middle of the night.

  16. Whenever he finishes it, he returns to it, as though

    Drunk with his delight, or feigning drunkenness.

Sol 6.1