1. Is this gray hair naught but grief in my temples,
And a disease for the gentle, tender-cheeked damsels?

2. Whenever they see it they bar the way before it,
Hindering the advances of an evil suitor.

3. After my youth I accepted it reluctantly,
So my hair's whiteness was the worst of turbans.

4. I resigned myself to its alarming me, as though
I resigned myself to its violent treats.

5. It overawes me as a lone old man is overawed
By a lion's terrifyings in the dense thicket.

6. It threatens me every day and night
With the swiftness of its advance and deadly blows.

7. My blamer for the madness of youth has sufficed me,
And its gravity put an end to my frolics.

8. It has shortened the hand of every pleasure for me,
And outstripped me in every race.

9. So, by God, I know not whether my loss of youth
Was due to the hurling of gray hair or deadly shafts.

10. And when time made me drink it, I drank it
As a prisoner drinks bitter, painful draughts.

11. The greetings grieved me over it as though
I were deranged if I stayed standing instead of sitting.

12. And I woke to having my standing doubted and claimed
Falsely that I had lost my resolution.

13. So I am not invited to a day of joyfulness,
Nor am I hoped for on a day of contention.

14. Do not seek from me the meeting of an adversary;
I am nothing but a man dressed in peace.

15. Do not drive me to face a glowering aggressor;
I am in the hands of white hair that attacks violently.

16. If I were to disdain to speak to you,
Your eyes would never have seen reticent silence in me.

17. But I am blest with white hair, so leave me be
And do not seek from me a cure for turbans.

18. A white hair like the dawn's breach, its whiteness raising
The cooled nights' pitch black darkness,

19. And its stars appearing on the youth's horizon
Like the rise of meteors through the clouds' midst.

20. So that whenever I set out to indulge myself
My steps pulled back as if fettered by possessions,

21. While hands support me when once I needed no pillar
To lean on for support.

22. And I show humility in matters I once stamped out,
Having been an obstruction to great affairs.

23. And I was defiant toward every attractor;
But when white hair weakened me, my resolution gave way.

24. And when its shadow covered me and I bore it
I grew accustomed to bearing injustices.

25. So let not my head bow down to honor
After the turbans of humiliation covered it.

26. O dye I have borne you without wanting to!
O dye I have changed you without happy consent!

27. O you visiting me without my granting permission
As youth is visited against its will by gray hair!

28. Stay! Do not cast me off, even if you are not beloved,
For how often have we disliked one with whom we could not dispense!

29. Who will change me from my morn to my darkness
And take me back from the blackness to the white?

30. Who will carry for me, in the early morning, the love
I once carried despite the heavy burdens?

31. O you whitening the whiteness of the head, can I hope
To return to blackness from your jostling midst?

32. You vie with the dawns, wildly dispersed,
As the daybreak dispersed a slumberer's dreams.

33. O dawn upon my head, is there a way
To the night of bliss and erect, spear-like tents?

34. Nights I would ransom with my soul, and don
White chain-mail against the white swords' evil.

35. If losing my youth is fated,
Then my sadness for it will last forever.

36. If my wailing and tears for one restored to health
Are not sincere, the tears of the living are enough, and the mourning of doves.