1. No youth remains for me after gray hairs,
Gone is youth and after it my levity,

2. Now I no longer hope for the union of a gazelle,
Nor fear the repulsion of an old hag,

3. O my friend, your repulsion has become evident,
For gray hair is more repulsive to me than you among my loved ones,

4. I have turned fifty and then sixty, after which
I have no excuse to my companions for repulsing them,

5. Perhaps the repulser was not blamed, and gray hair
In both cheeks is no cause for blame,

6. Do not fear that I will yearn for the love of
White-skinned beauties, for gray hair is my veil,

7. Old age has achieved its purpose and aim with me
Yet with it I could not achieve my hopes,

8. I hoped it would cure my hidden illness,
But it only increased my weakness and frailty,

9. My youth interceded for me with beauties,
While gray hair after its loss makes me more desirous,

10. Many are their quarters besides my quarters in love,
And their intimacy there is not my intimacy,

11. Before it I was a faithful pen pal,
But it returned my messages without an answer,

12. It is not to blame except that it was
The messenger of the separation from loved ones,

13. And I complained against her who was firm when
Gray hair had arrived and reproach was of no use,

14. O camel, how did you slip your tether from my hand
When I had doffed the clothes of youth?

15. You severed your connection though I had no crime,
And my coming and going was to be connected to you,

16. He who ignited the passion in my heart led it
As the guides lead the dawn with slow steps,

17. So when you ask about my heart, it has moved
Among tents and domed pavilions,

18. O you who ransack every small dune
To make the gazelles’ backs bleed!

19. And the sun in Gemini, intending toward
All those hills with its flames,

20. Seek refuge through the minister Abu Maali; let
My absence and return be through him,

21. And cut off through him so I do not travel,
And lame my riding beasts through him,

22. For he is the one I always longed for
And circled around, proposing to his thresholds,

23. And when wishes are fulfilled for me abundantly
Then crevices other than his are my crevices,

24. From your love and favor I have a rank—
Love I come to my loved ones with,

25. And when you fill my hearing with praise
It is as if you filled my hands with wealth,

26. And if you are pleased, then I have what I desire,
For my desire is that you be pleased, that is my request,

27. I have from your beauty every day a favor,
A lovely gift that comes to me and knocks on my door,

28. And a noble deed that no other honorer
Has equaled, with which my clothes surpassed people in fragrance,

29. You honored me so I was possessed by you with a bondage
That refuses emancipation on the day of freeing slaves,

30. And you left me an endowment to you, making
My dwelling and refuge to your abodes,

31. Many are my intercessions accepted by you
And calls heard and answered,

32. So whenever I wanted, I made my words the guide
To obtaining a gift and diverting punishment,

33. I was sufficed while in your hand was my help,
And I overcame while you were among my allies,

34. And whenever I was wronged, in you was my protection,
And when thirsty, my drink was from your fresh water,

35. While I am loyal to you in devotion,
So forgive that period of remoteness,

36. Ask his steadfastness at Khafaja and Dhu’l-Thadyan
How at ease he gives every coward the choice between death and flight,

37. And the spears make everyone praise whom
Those partings made bleed with dark blood,

38. And they ignorantly supposed you were like an ostrich
They made limp with their spears and swords,

39. Until they saw you resolute, and they shared
The paths of flight like mean wolves,

40. You scattered them and their tents were abandoned,
With no tent pegs or ropes,

41. And you took their lives and did not care for what
Their death sites had left of belongings,

42. God reward the bravery that enabled you
To cut down the non-Arabs with Arab swords!

43. You wrapped them in themselves so it was as if
You had stirred them in a pot in the thicket,

44. And today nothing saves you from its terrors
Except the thrusting spear and the true striking of swords—

45. For striking their skulls scattered
Above the ground, and spearing their kin,

46. They boasted vainly by the Euphrates, while today
Among them there is no buzzing of flies,

47. As for the clan of ‘Abd al-Rahim, they are
The limit of hope and the sought goal,

48. They dwelt only on the hilltops and were not watered
Except with the stars on the peaks of hills,

49. Among them is only the noble, for it is the house
Filled with abundant progeny,

50. Who dictate in case of dispute,
And are generous in time of need,

51. And vie with their banners against which
The others retreat reversing on their heels,

52. They will not be fitting kin to protect their swords,
While their swords are for us without kinship,

53. No good in a stock without agents among us
Or sword without sharpness,

54. Chieftainship is not with wishing or passion
But with undertaking every hardship,

55. Do not approach with your wolves the climbing
Of the honeyed vines, O lion of the thicket!

56. And when the thoroughbreds race, do not be distracted though
The bastard overtakes the excellent racer,

57. And the swords’ blades in time of need
Were never like the dull pulverizer,

58. Take them, and if any remains,
You will hear from it what you wish of prose and verse,

59. And listen to speech unmatched,
Full of favor and excitement,

60. A garden, but its blossoms are picked
Only by your right hand, O master of literature!

61. And when ears judge fairly, they detract
Nothing but my words and address,