1. The shadow of youth has shrunk, and old age
Comes marching in from the outskirts of life.

2. What dawn does not end in dusk?
What spring is not followed by autumn?

3. Time has passed thus and continues to pass -
The young grow old, the new grow worn.

4. The black nights amid the white days
Are legends no letters can spell.

5. My friend, why should one man laugh
While thousands around him weep?

6. Time has waged the raid of an ignorant lout -
The low and the noble are equal to him.

7. Affliction floods the face of the earth
Like Noah's deluge in days gone by.

8. He has claws that tear at men's hearts,
With swords embedded in necks.

9. How the upright in this world fall ill,
While knaves spread far and wide!

10. How brides are torn from their bridegrooms,
And the arrogant are tamed against their will!

11. He is clear, but you know not his coming,
So that you may be saved or sheltered in caves.

12. He enters the door of a fortress though fastened,
And sees clearly in deepest darkness.

13. Strange that men have lost the right path,
As the blind loses daylight.

14. When the living sees the dead youth, he says
"Not I - for me, the messenger of death waits."

15. Greetings to you, O Muhammad,
Brought by a gentle messenger.

16. Save me from ignorance, for you are wise
And skilled in the ways of Time.

17. I complained of the horrors of his tyranny,
But patience in ordeal fails me.

18. Pebbles are heavy for the weak of heart,
While boulders seem light to the steadfast.