1. I once had a youth no dawn would mix with,
But now my dawn is without any youth.

2. They said gray hair makes a young man wise,
I said it does, but it's the worst of wise.

3. Old age visited me - I did not want its visit.
Gray hair that did not aid my helpers or guards.

4. It shines after the darkness at its rising,
For one left open by the days, a vicious predator.

5. It bent my firmness and its claws ambushed me,
Pushing me back to straightening my bent frame.

6. It repelled from me the hearts of the white ones,
And today it has led me from speech to muteness.

7. If my grayness was a purity after impurity,
Then I would accept that impure attire.

8. But they erred and said grayness is purity,
And blackness has nothing of impurity.

9. And life in grayness extends, or so they claimed,
But it left nothing save the soul.