1. O Ammawi, if the youth whose nights passed from me
Made one of you youthful in purity,

2. Then it is no sin of mine in a cheek whose color
Turned white when darkness turned to radiance.

3. And if what we knew would pass did pass,
Though permanent it erased compassion.

4. And if the changes of fate had a trick,
I refused this gray hair with refusal.

5. So do not deny me a color I exchanged
Like one exchanging a cloak for another cloak.

6. For I keep the pact to which you pledged me
Protecting what you entrusted me in faithfulness.

7. Gray hair like the darkness of night in gloom
Came to you with certainty or erased dispute.

8. As if the nights when they shot me with arrows
Cast an echo or uncovered a covering.

9. So do not make what hurt me from you
A punishment for what I did not give as reward.

10. And count the whiteness of hair after its blackness
As a morning that came though I did not bring it, or evening.

11. And do not seek what seeking it
Its seekers went astray from it in pain.

12. For if you call, longing ardently,
For lost youth, you wasted a call.