1. Youth was the mount of ignorance
And the embellisher of laughter and jest

2. Beauty, when I was clad in it
And walked, my sandal-strap did rattle

3. Eloquence, when I spoke it
And ears harkened unto the declaimer

4. The intercessor in his affairs
To the maid and attainment of enjoyment

5. And arouser whilst people slept
That I might be vicegerent to the husband

6. And commander until, when my soul purposed,
It aided my hand to do the deed

7. Now have I come to doddering old age
And alighted from youth’s back my saddle

8. And the wine-cup which I loved, though it blamed me,
Livelihood hath reached scant measure and lack

9. A yellow one, glorified by its vintagers,
Transcending peers and match

10. Kept for Adam before his creation
It stepped before him with the pace of meeting

11. So a thing came to you you touch not
Save with very reason’s digit-tip

12. Whereat the eye in a fair face turns back
Smooth parchment, beaming, gentle

13. And when the water overlays it
It clothes it with motes like anklets' dust

14. Till, when its ferment settles,
It writes the like of ants' tracks

15. Two lines diverse conjoined,
Uncouthly, of obscurity and shape

16. So excuse your brother for he is a man
Whose hearing is dulled for reproof