1. On the pages of life, the hand of fate
Has inscribed lessons for those with memory

2. Through them I learned life's secret and its essence
And all the sweet and bitter the world contains

3. For life is but stages we pass
Sometimes on thorns and sometimes on flowers

4. Dreams build for us towers of bliss
Then days demolish them with red storms

5. In a cradle slept an infant swaddled
Like a bird nestling softly in its nest

6. Wanting to stir but the wraps restrain him
So he lies there helpless and suppressed

7. His sobs translate his sorrows
As tears stream down his tender breast

8. When the child's voice stirs his mother's heart
The lightning of love flows between their souls

9. She sings to him melodies of affection
Attentive, he listens to the tunes of her lips

10. And she recites to him lyrics of passion
Charmed, he echoes in babble her spells

11. In her eyes he's sweeter than all treasures
At dusk more beautiful than the dawn

12. She sees him in love's mirror as though
A brother to the moon or brighter than the moon

13. Then life bares its blade in his youth
To prune his blooming, viridescent branch

14. The worm of worry pierces her heart
And turmoil surges in waves around

15. Alas! A mother's life is bitter in taste
Her child's cradle-life is a kind of captivity

16. Once my heart was vexed with people
I found no solace but the wilderness

17. I went out, worries in my chest like
Spearheads - who can extract spears from my chest?

18. When my eyes fell on a meadow in bloom
Crowned by the rain with hyacinths

19. I saw the hordes of mankind attack sorrow
Leave no vestige or trace of sadness in my heart

20. A river flowed there, the breeze braiding
Foam caps, or chains of pearls over it

21. On its banks the creeping shadow stretched
Its scented breezes beyond compare

22. When a butterfly glided by it
Chased by a toddler with cheeks aflame

23. Finding no refuge but the shade
He clung there for relief from the heat

24. After a while the boy's eye fell
On an anthill round a mound of grain

25. So he crushed it unjustly and scattered
The ants and stores that were safe within

26. I said to myself: this is the image
Of one who makes the world drink bitter patience

27. When did events become so cruel
As to inflict harm on God's weakest creatures?

28. I looked upon the youth with a gaze
Where the sun of truth shone in my thoughts

29. They have a recalcitrant pride, disdaining
Smallness, with ambitions like the eagle's

30. They dive into the sea of glories
To retrieve the precious pearl from the deep

31. Lions in battle, refusing injustice
With resolve firm as rock, forever flowing

32. Their homelands cannot be violated
They defend them with unsheathed blades, reddened

33. God protect the lion cubs and lions
And guard them from the pack of deceit and guile

34. And salute the brave youth with a salutation
Echoed in the forest by the zealous leopard

35. They are the arsenal of nations, protecting their glory
With ferocity constantly gushing like a torrent

36. Though youth has departed, they still
Reap the blossoms of wisdom from the orchard of experience

37. Their hearts discern the ways of the world, well-versed
In its ethics however long the ages spanned

38. Flirtations do not beguile their hearts
Nor are they boys at play as fawns in the meadow

39. Poised between vigor and dignity
We see them lofty yet abstaining from wine

40. When the mature man sires children, he nurtures them
With fine morals and virtuous traits

41. He teaches them in the cradle love of their nourisher
And saves them in his lap from evil ways

42. He shields their hearing from any word
That could one day lead them to sin's abyss

43. He hides from their sight any scene
That could imprint vice's germ in their minds

44. If any crooked branch appears in them, he swiftly
Prunes it gently, saving it from being severed

45. If their youth shows traces of insolence
He reprimands them, not with blows and estrangement

46. For his glance to them is more effective than the sword
His awe makes violence and rebuke unnecessary

47. And when they do a good deed, he rewards them
With a prize that endears goodness to their souls

48. He gives them to sip from his affection's nectar
Goblets that make them forget fermented wine

49. The best he does for their virtue
Is to lift ignorance's veil from their breasts

50. He spends his brilliance in this cause
For knowledge is surely better than wealth

51. An esteemed elder whose head is crowned with white
Like roses adorning a branch in the garden

52. When the days obscure his glowing sunset
His views enlighten you like the dawn

53. If the night of problems grows dark, there shines
A wisdom brighter than shooting stars in his mind

54. So the arrows of his insights do not miss the target
He can read the book of the unseen by the intellect

55. Every assembly is filled with awe of him
As victories and glories fill the brave and valiant

56. His gathering is like hyacinths strewn
Across its surface, or embers of light from flint

57. He has a horizon graced with wisdom's halo
As though encircled by the moon's own aura

58. Indeed, the elder is more beneficial for people
Than a sword in the grip of a gallant youth

59. How many calamities have the elders resolved!
Without them the land would be paralyzed

60. How many floods have they weathered, flood after flood
Never heeding ebb or flow, surge or recession!

61. The hand of experience has polished their minds
And polishing makes the mind shine brighter than dawn

62. Seasoned through their eras' changing fortunes
And learned in its harms and benefits

63. When the army of hardship marches, their minds
Unleash on it a barrage of ideas like a slashing sword

64. Yet the elder's life is bitter, even if
He rules exalted on the throne of power and command

65. You see him shiver in the cold
And melt in the blazing heat of summer

66. He laments the era of youth, grieving
For his strength which has betrayed him in the sunset of life

67. No wonder he regrets the days of his prime
For he is now bent like a bow, its tension slackened

68. His vision has dimmed and his teeth are gone
In his chest worries burn hotter than embers

69. He sees death ambushed all around
To sink its claws unexpectedly in his breast

70. Its sculpting fingers carve his grave
And the hand of fate digs it deeper and deeper

71. So death does not disappear from his mind's eye
Nor are thoughts of the grave's abyss averted from his gaze

72. Damn this world that immerses people in its cares
Though tasting its joys is like sipping aloes

73. If you wish to live as bliss's ally
Do much good and devote yourself to righteousness

74. For the best of all people are those who adorned
The days of their lives with deeds that delight in the Place of Final Review