1. Is there a way back to youth restored?
Or do you have an interpretation for old age?

2. A light in the hair would that it never sets
In it is a rising, and every rising has a setting

3. What interceded for me has renewed estrangement
Losing it, though, is an explanation

4. Oh, if only he had avoided passion behind him
So it would be said no harm and no fault

5. There are my passions as they were left behind
Time played with them and they underwent no change

6. Lightning leads me to faith as if
It were a messenger come from beyond the frontiers

7. And as if my heart and my worries between us
Were a torrent in the valley of al-`Udha pouring

8. Their litter curtains issue legal opinions though I did not consult them
That stolen privacy is thieving

9. Look, my friend, from a halt do you see
Any cotton? For the pupil of al-`Amri is sleepy

10. And I swore my sight was no truer than you two
A look, but passion is proof

11. They said: The abodes—and I paused—so increase me
Perplexity, frail traces, and ruins

12. And I burst open the fluttering of the breeze but it did not heal
My malady, and can one diseased heal another diseased?

13. And I sipped the necklace of the brook but there is nothing
My lips sipped that slakes my thirst

14. O stray of the valley, urge on my mount
Or does your gazelle in the thicket have a resting place?

15. Her eyes I handed over to her and my look admires
The kohl as if their glances were scrolling

16. Kohl for the gazelles of the Hijaz and its magic
Is imported from Babylon, transported

17. And indeed I knocked at the abode—its lord dislikes it
Though yearning is not faulted for being importunate

18. Would one who violates his people's sanctities think
That all bloodshed is permitted?

19. Without shedding my tears as you wish, such
Patience, and without shedding my blood your tyranny is tyranny

20. And I am a man—were my poetry given free rein
It would be said his words are revelation

21. The mighty do not covet my praise and
My hopes of their gates are not irrational

22. And if I could I would not have gulped a draft
Of what their Euphrates and Nile pour out

23. And when I consider people I find
Disparate values and acquisition distinguishes between them

24. Some are the pick of steeds and some
Between the crupper and shin are jades

25. Like jewelry—necklaces, anklets
Some of it, and some the crown and wreath

26. Were it not for them the suns of beauties
Would have set and the full moon of glories set

27. Away with this Time that has no balance
Or justice in its dealing or rectification

28. Injustice that makes an educated man
Equal in it to an ignorant and an inferior to one noble

29. The person's worth does not advance his lifetime
Lax of belt and his resolve broken

30. The hyssop—the seasons plant it and it does not know
Whether its period is long or short

31. And the violets—their lashes and sandals
Lineage the dew and rain nourished

32. So when the perfection of dominion spreads its clouds
Hope sprouts and expectation bears fruit

33. His gifts outstripped praise so one who
Hastened to him thought they were in bulk

34. A hasty one to kindness thinks if
He does not seize it, it will disappear

35. Much is said of him and the like of them
Though among the generous they are few

36. And when he attains an extremity witness for him
That no guide can parallel his extension

37. The steeds of one who desires his path are confused
Truly lofty paths are unknown

38. Glory is inherited, aged, by a company
Whose branches reached out to its roots

39. They surpassed the stubbornness of enviers so he found
No fault, and what can the stars say?

40. For them, when nature is generous, you brandished
A blade while you are pure sheen

41. And if a lineage leads back to you it is
The dawn joined to the morn consolidated

42. And you have tightened the bonds of every summation
Against which an orator and critic strain

43. And you have protected the homelands of affairs, though only
Clouds from which blood flows used to protect them

44. And when the circle of intimates meets, your
Sufficing then is an epistle and messenger

45. Instead of giving robes of honor, suits
Of mail whose clash is neighing

46. They grow like a garden but for
Our hearing and minds watering them

47. And from white steel each page
Clashing with its cover has tinkling

48. The days have bared their forearms for you
Delighting, their existence lasting and prolonging

49. And successive proofs follow each other, each
A lifetime in which Time's eternity is guaranteed

50. The Nawruz comes your way, after it keeping away
Years of felicity, all polished

51. It is a plan the summer hastened to with
Yearning, and winter called to depart

52. Spring took its reins until its greenery stood
Even on both cheeks, loosened

53. With you its days shone so it is as if we are
In Kisra's time—the lowering of the sunshades