1. The cheeks were once plump with youth
But now old age runs ahead in the race

2. A bold horseman with a slender spear
As if he were a knight storming a fortress

3. I do not recognize his thighs and spear
Neither India nor the East knows him

4. Reluctantly I gave him the castle of Hayja
But it was his nature to knock down castles

5. And I wished for him the star Al Safa
Yet his night was spent wandering amongst the stars

6. They claimed the whiteness of his hair was a defect
I replied, he ascends and descends

7. The hairs of his beard were dyed black
As if they were lined up ants

8. The days of vitality and after them the days
When activity itself is restricted

9. My curly hair was once loved by the beauties
Now there are no curls or beautiful ladies

10. The beauties used to plead with me
When my ear-rings and I were their intercessors

11. Ear-rings and shining pearls were confused
As to which of them sparkled more

12. He stops travellers only to sing for them
Both the vagabond and the knight listen to him