1. The dwellings in Najaf are desolate of song,
And I have ceased from what I was used to of gentleness.

2. I turned away satisfied though it was painful,
When the prime of its life faded away.

3. I refrained from the intoxication of youth,
Fearing my God in seclusion and solitude.

4. I grew weary of visiting the youths, so they
Despaired of me, the girls of tents and cottages.

5. I avoided the breasts attributed to a shapely figure,
And a glance circulating amidst the twisting paths.

6. They stretch the rope of youth for whoever's legs
Are straight like tent poles standing upright.

7. And an emaciated one who increased his leanness
With passion, to the thinness of an arm bone.

8. He shares the birds in lamenting, but does not
Share with them leanness, hardship, and distress.

9. And female listeners whom he made suffer greatly,
So he gets no justice from the oppression.

10. Proud of tyranny, how strange, as are
The foolish proud of insanity and deviation.

11. And coffee from the produce of Qatrabul,
That steals the intellect of the youth without force.

12. It returns the crevices of youth to the doddering old,
And brings the young man closer to senility.