1. My brother, I saw gray hair as death, though it weeps
It has a living root, so after it youth grows

2. When the hair turns youthful, it is healthy since its death has youth
And the most that remains after it grows youth

3. Indeed, the death of hair is half, and what remains
Is not like the strength, it is weakness

4. When half of a man dies, and after it the other half
By my father's life, half of his half does not remain

5. Did half live after the knowledge I knew?
And if it lived, is life after it pure?

6. It is true of myself, I mourn it because
In me has gathered all that was under my care

7. And the remaining nights have been sleepless with me
Lessons for me from it, and from me, types for it

8. When my progeny dies, and the one who procreates me
And raises me, I am but a conjunction with them, conjoined

9. Is a name beneficial when the best of it
And its first are but letters from every deed gone by?

10. When a letter is a man's parent and child
And his peers, then life among who remains is misfortune

11. Indeed, our world passes its cups between us
All of them, while we alternate holding and pouring

12. It is but a meadow inhabited by life
Its perdition is but the anemones and pods

13. So oh longing of my soul, what suffering from harm
It has with it, however long I live, even if useful, longing