1. Man does not cease to wear out coats,
Until old age makes him don the coat of mail,

2. And that is a coat which, when a man puts it on,
Cancels pleasure and casts away sport,

3. O dwellers in the dust, how many a rider have I asked
About their deeds, but have not found news of them,

4. Ordeals have passed and their afflictions are not remembered,
And the flute forgets when the patch is torn away,

5. You will only obtain from this life endurance,
Until you become patient toward its events,

6. And its love, while it was lovable,
Kept David moaning nightlong through the Psalms,

7. Your life is yours without me, I have decreed regarding it
The decree of the son of Ajlân who harvested it when it ripened,

8. Have you not seen the jurist of Egypt come from
Burying his friend but he did not preach to the buried,

9. You are the son of your time, and the past is news of ruin,
And no sweetness is left in what is faded and dusty,

10. The living passes by the departed and so passes him,
And how many varied forms has he seen but not taken example!