1. Youth has departed and the days of my life have turned,
So my heart no longer knows the familiarity it once knew.

2. They were two beloved things - my passion for them,
Never does a man willingly part from one he loves.

3. Neither is union possible, nor can I attain its return,
And sometimes the past returns after having gone.

4. For me is the sweetness of secure shade or hoped-for shelter,
Or fresh drink of life thereafter described.

5. Oh my heart laden with passion and purpose -
I have spent my tears on her days excessively.

6. Indeed my soul has burdened itself, so will there be a time
That will clear with palm-wine that burden?

7. How much anguish I conceal, though my eyelids reveal it,
And I hide my sorrow lest it be unveiled.

8. And many a day of union I was not angered by,
Nor did I complain of intimacy and closeness.

9. My confusion would not harm by being stingy if I sought pasture,
Oh my tears, by being halted if they halted.

10. I refused to cry the crying of bereft women when
Lightning smiled in its loftiness and retreated.

11. Yes, and nothing distressed my heart after its youth
Like the cooing of the doves that did not shout.

12. It longs for tenderness in the branches, befriending it,
But will lack tenderness in the branches and twigs.

13. If only I had a ladder of days I could hope in
While few who fought against the days came out victorious.

14. No coming remains that would please the soul in its quest;
I ask of fate only to restore what is past.

15. It quenched the meadows of my passions, and no tears
Poured when the serpent withdrew towards the cliff and sufficed.

16. Encampments rise before my eyes and my conscience together,
While Joseph has moved far from them, oh what a pity!