1. Two things stirred the pangs of sorrow -
The arrow of destiny among people, and their wretched livelihood.

2. Alas for the refined and the knowledgeable!
They are the best of humankind.

3. Yet they are humiliated while the ignoble looks on gleefully,
One of life's great injustices.

4. O ignorance! By you they judged pain,
Yet ignorance is blindness.

5. Alas! Ignorance has not silenced the prattle,
Nor has talk subsided.

6. O worst of gangs who act like savages,
Rising and retiring,

7. Boasting of vulgarity and rude nature
Like one deranged.

8. They care not for propriety atop the dunes,
Bearers of pearls.

9. Yet I wonder at the gilding of gold,
Scorched by flames,

10. And at time's idiocy
Giving the lowborn

11. The highest positions.
Some claimed wealth is the highest honor,

12. While knowledge to those fools
Is the lowest profession.

13. Damn them and the hated slanderer,
Perpetrator of violence.

14. The ignorant cannot be compared to the virtuous,
The lofty and eminent.

15. Wealth, by God, and knowledge
Are self-sufficiency.

16. They bring you glory,
A harvest you reap.

17. By God, when the sky of rule is illuminated
By every wise person,

18. None but the blind deny their brilliant merit -
And excellence is bountiful.

19. How many learned men among the people
Whose knowledge is supreme,

20. Yet are diminished by the lowliest ignorant one in the nations,
Like the despised!

21. No blame upon a family of low status
If they increased your paucity.

22. Does an empty house not
Become fuller if the youth in it thrives?

23. Journey on, O dwelling of sighs,
Among the ruins,

24. I will not alight except in a populated place,
Filled with jinn.

25. Jinn appeared in human form -
The matter is clear.

26. No descendants of Adam are devoid of jinn
Of hideous form.

27. If you experience it, seek refuge in the Lord of the Dawn
At daybreak,

28. And beware, be prudent,
Lest an evil one touch you in anxiety.

29. A monkey shedding decency sheds stench,
Garment of vileness.

30. Boasting with the adornment of profligacy, the boasting of mischief,
Above inequity.

31. The ignorant in our time, full of troubles,
Above the perceptive.

32. The reasonable one from the fluctuations of time
Under danger.

33. Tears and restraint,
Though the state of affairs lacks concealment,

34. And time is heedless.
O Time, enough!

35. You have accustomed us to your abandonment,
But patience is pardon.

36. How foolish is one who exalts the steed of folly
For racing,

37. Tempted by his awful deed, the pretentious one,
Evil in nature.

38. The owl in the darkness is not recalled
With dawn's light

39. Except exposing it at daybreak
With bitter boredom.

40. Thus the sun when it rises
And there is a speck in the eye

41. Increases pain.
The rose too

42. Has a beautiful fragrance
None would deny.