1. You wept for youth before youth could slip away,
So I wonder what you will say when it’s gone.

2. You thought it would last if you guarded it closely
From the rosy lips and the kohl-rimmed eyes.

3. But love in ignorance led you astray,
And wisdom came only too late.

4. You feared passion would toss it aside,
And this fear cast you down in the pit.

5. Would you dam the river to keep it from flowing
Lest otherwise it would vanish? Then drink and be sated.

6. However you strive to guard youth, it will fade.
So let it taste love before it decays.

7. The rain showered endlessly on the rock
But sprouted no flowers, bore no herbs.

8. More futile than rain on a rock is youth
Wasted on one whose heart craves but bitterness when hungry.

9. Be not like the partridge, protecting her eggs
From the field, only to abandon the nest.

10. The valley pleased her, so she sought its shelter,
But floodwaters came in the night, and she was swept away.

11. She never embraced the stars’ light in the gloom,
Or kissed the dawn, or sipped the dew.

12. She disappeared, and neither light nor mist mourned her absence,
As if she had never been.

13. And be not like the nightingale, thinking his songs
Would earn him nobility if he hoarded their beauty.

14. He was miserly while the sun scattered its bounty
And the earth smiled, blooming and fertile.

15. When the light of spring left the meadows
And death crept to its blooms, slow and hidden,

16. He tried to sing, but found only fallen leaves around him,
Like his murdered dreams.