1. We have left youth for every vain desire,
And we have cast off every fault and shame.

2. And we have devoted ourselves to the preaching of the aged,
Whose lives have told us of their passing away.

3. And if youth has borne with us,
Then it is ugly for us to persist in folly,

4. And we rode till the night hurried on,
And the dawn came, cutting off all means.

5. As though the stars in the night were an army,
Who went into ambush in the belly of a forest,

6. And as though the dawn were a huntsman,
Whose hand grasped the feet of a crow,

7. And like a polished sword that night inclined,
And let down its plaited hair.

8. And as though the stars when they faded before it
Shone for the eyes from among veils.

9. And as though the lightnings when they appeared to them
Were kindled in its heaven from some fiery stones.

10. They steal away the fruit of every desolate region,
The wing of a night whose steeds are from my she-camels.

11. From talking of me in their assembly they desisted,
And turned to discuss some strange and wondrous matter.

12. A high ambition in the sky draws a train,
Of trains of elevation but determination declines.

13. And a youth whom the ideals made delicate,
So that the patrician broke him with the rod of might.

14. Days and nights disgraced him,
With good fortune in blows and frowns.

15. One whom the caprices of nights, if he saw them,
Would hide from them in fear in a veil.

16. He tasted of his days, and they were the same,
The savor of their honey and their bitterness to him.

17. And if the world were a generous rewarder
It would not be a mouthful for the horse of the dogs.

18. And when I look what others than I have won,
My burden that I carry in my clothes is lightened.

19. A carcass that has stunk, to which
The young ones of her people of the vultures hurry.

20. Of a martyr in his mystery, then of an ardent lover
Who is secret in his ardency from the subtle of the subtle.

21. The orators of mankind, if an address fails them,
And the Bedouins in the deserts of the Arabs.