1. My excuse for the misfortunes of my fate,
And for the loss of borrowed youthfulness;

2. The elegant garment I used to wear,
Dragging its train amidst the maidens.

3. I've not yet passed twenty years,
So graying hair cannot excuse my errors.

4. I did not enjoy the call to recklessness,
Until the call to dignity came upon me.

5. Oh my gray hair you have wronged me, and my youth,
You have brought me the worst of neighbors.

6. It carries off all who seek refuge in it,
And ends with the abandonment of homes.

7. I commanded it be cut, and stopped indulging it,
And found peace in enduring it.

8. I said gray hair is the easiest thing,
I must face in life and manage.

9. My companion dawn does not remain,
Until the rising day embraces it.

10. I was not saddened when it came,
I met it like the stumbling of the blind.

11. How many visitors I disliked,
Then after their visit mourned their parting.

12. When will I live without fault or arrival,
That pleases me, without a moving abode?

13. When worries took turns with me,
I took refuge from worries in poison.

14. My friend and I camped in barren lands,
With cracked lips and cheeks like desert hills.

15. No water except the drops we gathered,
No food except what we hunted and foraged.

16. When signs of life appeared in the distance,
I remembered my dwellings and recognized my homes.

17. The wings of night covered us,
A specter visited, weakening our strength.

18. Stingy yet you are my neighbor,
And faithful though far away.

19. My soul plays with me on the back of horses,
Whims that do not settle for small things.

20. A soul unsatisfied without glory,
And hands unable to contain the seas.

21. I see myself demanding the impossible,
My aspirations fall short of my dreams.

22. Of what use are lofty ambitions,
When paired with short lifespans?

23. A weeping pilgrim chants at a shrine,
Quenching the thirst of copious hopes.

24. He says to me wait for relief, but who can tell
That death itself waits in anticipation of me?

25. For every worry I have hosts of misfortunes,
Calamities piercing like arrows.

26. There is a remedy for every illness,
Except the rending of the loincloth.

27. So I do not settle unless,
I settle like the expanse of the seas.

28. Nor am I accompanied by horsemen, unless
I accompany with the security of escape.

29. Nor do realms fear me, unless
I greet them with billowing dust.

30. With an army that does not allow a raid,
And a view that does not elude them from caves.

31. I tightened the noose of travel,
A distant untying, not easily undone.

32. Tongues and peaks sing of it,
As do the suppressed talents and the skilled.

33. They return after long estrangement disheveled,
Due to the great distance of the caves.

34. The banners around me flutter red,
And the brave follow me closely.

35. If a bold enemy approaches,
The men repel them vigorously.

36. When my journey came to rest, I became dear,
And people treated me with utmost care.

37. My family are those I camped with,
And my home wherever I stayed.