1. If my children and my grandchildren
Are fathers of children and sons of ancestors

2. And my teeth and hearing and eyesight
Diminish exponentially from their usual norm

3. And I have to rely on a walking stick
As I can no longer walk steadily without support

4. Whereas yesterday I was leading life
Today my staff leads me, one of my own supports

5. And after nurturing my enemy he returns
And after caring for my dear he too abandons

6. How can I enjoy life's pleasures and hoard inheritance
And be miserly about my existence and acquisitions

7. When sixty years have turned my hair all white
And seventy still frolics with its black strands

8. And before me died my father and mother
And were buried, and after my ancestors died my children

9. Each day has its share for graves and each night
One leaves, the other heads that way

10. What a woeful blessing in the shadow of this
What sorrow that life ends in sunset and destruction

11. This world, however gilded for us
Is for sure only the fowler's snare

12. And death but the hunter with ropes
So what man can avoid being hunted down

13. We befriend it, ruined collecting its riches
And however much we acquire we get no provisions

14. We weary ourselves with hopes of reforming it
Only to demolish and spread corruption

15. Until we stake everything on sins
And the caller calls when the intercessor is no more

16. The voice of calamity visits us each day
And we are helpless to repel its assault

17. We will depart to join the departed
Captives in shackles, prisoners in chains

18. To a vacant land with no loving friend
Or accustomed visitor to see us

19. And how many leaders have departed for the Resurrection
Leaving behind not even their bodies

20. Oh if only I knew what awaits me
Will it be bliss or misery that finds me

21. Will I after Resurrection attain the Fountain
Or will the distance cut me off from reaching it

22. Will I be with the honored party of its Lord
Or with those of evil and loss

23. Will I abide eternally in Hellfire
Or in the Gardens of Eternity in the company of the Guide

24. May the prayers of God be upon him, living and dead
And upon the companions, the elite of the elect

25. Oh what different abodes- one of bliss
The other of misery, sorrow and shackles

26. I turn to You, O God, hopeful
That in Your mercy You'll pardon me on the Day of Reckoning

27. And if You quench my thirst through Your compassion
I will be free of the fetters of the Eternal Punisher

28. If I have not spent nor been ascetic
I hope that through professing Your Oneness I'll gain access and recital