1. Ignorance and excess have vanished, wisdom now
Shows the straight path, when passion misled the youth,

2. And hoariness has clothed me, which I wanted before,
Nights and days go on changing and alternating,

3. My vigour and my hoary hair are not as they were.
Both have parted from me, my hoary head differed,

4. Till time afflicted and changed me completely,
As the fertile soil is changed by the sower.

5. My soul whispered to me secretly when alone:
The soul is truthful if left to itself.

6. He who sees supporting arms in his son
His own strength as an old man becomes less.

7. Leave youthfulness and do not hanker after its pleasures,
Whoever seeks after lusts becomes stained.

8. Youth is a kind of madness, empty of truth,
Raising dust for a while, then it disperses.

9. When old age does not teach a man a lesson,
Excess destroys him through its mad career.

10. Men are of two kinds, neither can be equalled;
The brave, with self‐respect when affairs are serious,

11. And the cowardly, when given authority are known
By the meanness of their spirits and actions despicable.

12. I am one who is free from enmity with me,
My relations have parted from me and become strangers.

13. Some have eaten my flesh without any qualm.
If I strike their noses they bow with humility,

14. They are not grieved though I make their tongues sweet,
If they think I am angry with them they will regret.

15. Am I not more brilliant than they? Though they are
The vile, if honoured they are found to be nobles!

16. Disgrace encompasses them and surrounds them
Like the branches encompass the top of the palm‐tree.

17. Whoever tries to pick a quarrel with his enemy,
Frightens him with threats, for awe inspires fear.

18. So do not dread journeys, howsoever long,
Who fears long travel is always a coward.

19. A man may return from a journey, though safety is despaired of,
While he who sits at home may suffer a mishap.

20. What about her who made promises and broke them?
Her promise was smooth but her actions were rough.

21. She does not fear Allah in one whose heart is filled with love,
A sufferer, trusting, as if possessed and mad.

22. If she pierces his heart one day with her arrows,
The sin will be hers and the crime will be grave.

23. And if she gives him life for some happy days,
Her nobleness and generosity give him relief.

24. Hearts are enslaved by a face that has no equal,
Like the full moon at its zenith and prime.

25. Behind the veil it has cheeks as the berries black,
Like bunches of dates when they ripen and drop.

26. It has a cheek bright like the day to give light by,
No clear spot or blemish has touched it at all.

27. She is limpid‐eyed, with arched eyebrows fine,
Neither tall is her nose nor short is her line.

28. It shows whiteness of even teeth when she smiles,
At which beauty itself feels surprise.

29. Not clove mixed with musk has a scent like hers,
When she exposes it, it spreads perfume around.

30. Her talk is heart-ravishing, joyous its spell,
As though it is friendship's sign when plucked and culled.

31. When she walks her limbs move with a dangling grace,
Languid, aromatic, as when breeze stirs a bough.

32. She was nurtured on unadulterated wine, pure.
With sweet basil and everything choicest and best.

33. She came to live in Yathrib, leaving the Springs,
While doors and walls separated me from the Rest.

34. So I was led to love a house that attracted me,
My eyes poured with tears copiously and unsuppressed.

35. A house where the wind winnows, sifts and bolts it,
Scattering all dust by its breezes caressed.

36. I had there high‐breasted maidens, with necks white like crystal,
Draped in beauty, of chastity possessors and guarders.

37. Borne upon steeds noble, sure‐stepped in their paces,
Necks outstretched when excited, long‐striding when roused.

38. Every smooth‐flanked mother bounds answering her foal,
Her forelegs outstretched in her run without pause.

39. If the stallion jealousy stirs him, he champs foam,
His mouth tissues collect it, his anger to slake.

40. Wild creatures' well‐fed herd crops and grazes there,
Partridges, greens, and all nutritious and fresh.

41. So the eye browses and sheds tears remembering,
I weep for the site and sobbing make open confession.

42. Nu'aim, Su'ad and Mushajjar I see there,
With Multebid, heads bending, nose sniffing the ground.

43. My weeping is not for an abode I was master in,
And my loneliness not for a home I forsook.

44. An unknown inviolate sanctuary now,
Where now no camel‐ewe browses or sheep flocks wander.

45. As though its echoes at night - when darkness enfolds it -
Are voices of men when darkness o'er takes them, shout,

46. And he who crosses its desert hears - so forlorn now -
Jinn's voices when gloom reigns chanting their verse.

47. There the wild cows with their yearlings have it for home,
No run-down enclosure or tent there you find.

48. Desolate shrubs shrink from the heat, scattered about,
As though swept off by a flood that passed o'er them and harried.

49. I visited it when darkest night spread its cloak,
None saw me, the sun's rays had left it deserted.

50. The heat of its glowing surface the pebbles burned,
As though it was the sky's blaze set it on fire.

51. When its lightnings flash out from its heavy cloud,
Like dots splashed from skins, when tanned and cut up.

52. And when in yearning it moans, the land shakes in its thrill,
Its every channel responds, flooding without stint.

53. It gives meadows, after rain, canopies gracefully green,
And the pasturage sprouts, where the torrents descend.

54. It clothes the country with gardens, morn decks it with flowers,
Clusters of stars without number or limit.

55. So the eye drinks deep of its cached-up treasures,
The home of the heart's joy, where it is used to feed.

56. Scattered herds of wild cows race over the land,
Their new-born calves by their side, grunting as they run.

57. Straight-racing smooth-bodied steeds, long-necked and spare,
Striding fast like ostriches, mouths gaping wide.

58. Bred of the noblest strains, their sires selected for race,
High-bred colts of the choicest and purest descent.

59. They never gave less on any day they covered the mares,
Or got smaller the foals in whatever year bred.

60. As though when hoariness shrouds them, they are
With cheeks smeared and reddened, the nostrils exuding mucus.

61. They flash on the flat lands like the trunks of palms,
Strangers and outcasts, mouths open and gasping.

62. Some were cast by the violence of the torrent,
Huge, their buttocks like a valley-side stretching wide.

63. Never a mare of good breed but casts her young,
The very best her progeny, without lameness or defect.

64. Never grudged on the day they covered them, or were mean
When the time of Impregnation came into season.

65. Many a high-bosomed maternal camel went with them,
Adorned with trinkets, smeared with henna and indigo.

66. Whenever they halted settling down for the night,
The rain cleared their ground and washed all about.

67. Till when dawn drives the darkness away and disperses it,
Bringing the sun that unveils them and shows their number;

68. The striped breeds rise, marked on the flanks as though branded,
Like a tattoo, by stingers of hornets marked on the face.

69. Then they sweep off briskly roused to excitement,
Necks outstretched, chasing wild game and pursuing.

70. Swifter than ostriches, feet skimming the ground,
As though a cloud gathers them, but shows their figure.

71. Now treading with force, now easily gliding at will,
Like sailors shooting foam from the bows as they row.

72. Until she has roused him, refusing control now,
As though each seeks his fellow when passions run high.

73. Then tears flowed apace and I sobbed in remembrance,
At the site of old encampment I made loud lament.

74. An abode unknown now, untrodden its valleys,
No camel now browses, no sheep flocks wander there.