IV: No one hath proved any of the world's…

No one hath proved any of the world's faithfulness or sincerity;
And none, but the faithless and perfidious, have any affection for it.

They who may lay any claim unto it, as belonging to them,
Speak wholly under delusion; for the world is no one's own.

Fortune is like unto a potter--it fashioneth and breaketh:
Many, like unto me and thee, it hath created and destroyed.

Every stone and clod of the world, that may be looked upon,
Are all sculls; some those of kings, and some of beggars.

It behoveth not that one should place a snare in the world's path;
For the capture of the griffin and the phoenix cannot be effected.

Who can place any dependence upon this fleeting breath?
It is impossible to confine the wind with the strongest chain!

Whether the sun or the moon, the upshot is extinction:
Doth the flower always bloom? Nothing can exist for ever!

Walk not, O Rahman! contrary to the ways of the enlightened;
Since the love of the world is not approved of by any wise man.