1. Seventy, O my friends, and affliction abounds,
In adversity, true friends are found.

2. Seventy, O what an era of horrors!
Long it dragged on, while tears flowed like sap.

3. The years pile up atop our heads
Till necks strain under their mass.

4. Marvel not if the troubled heart of a weary man
Complains after joy—his feet ache.

5. Seventy, its thorns were in childhood’s path,
As for youth—youth is no more.

6. Dedication lured me, despite its dryness,
Till I thirsted, even if drink were offered.

7. Seventy, my loved ones thought I would
Raise pavilions—but no pavilions there.

8. I did not deceive them, but my fortune with them did,
Fortunes are wonders.

9. I built my foundations on fantasy
So they cracked and down came the beams.

10. Truly, I raised my pillars on mirage
No wonder they melted and mirage remained.

11. Seventy, how many of my fellows gathered,
Brooks of affection became torment.

12. Till when spring adorned their gardens
And ripening fruits drew near,

13. Time led the herd toward dispersal
As if they were strangers.

14. After them, the nights were deprived of company
And the lute passed, smashing its strings.

15. For creators, sterility stretched its porch
And the absence of authentic art prevailed.

16. Sham pervades the coasts, extending its tide,
Till the swell of charlatans was a deluge.

17. Seventy, the nights assassinate my page
And negligence appears in their traces.

18. If I defied the years, they indeed
Are stronger and more violent when defeat nears.

19. I claimed I never parted from my vigor
But the counting scoffed, mocking with its tongue.

20. The years grew weary of pain and closed
Between me and my prime, the doors.

21. Gray hair does not seduce the beautiful,
Rather, it disgusts when girls look upon it.

22. Seventy, winter has come to visit me
And the fire has died out, no flint remains.

23. My senses yearn for the scent of dust
Dust longs for dust—such is nature’s decree.

24. Awake, I doze, and aridity has dried
My eyelids, so dreaming dreams the student.

25. In self-knowledge, I'm a quarter educated,
A companion of books—books did not betray me.

26. In my blood is a passion for childhood and youth
It is my love, my song, my loved ones.

27. Dreams fragment in its waves
And sweet clouds pour out their rain.

28. So if I claim an ancestry, I have in its letters
A lineage that makes me yearn for it.

29. My critic, how I wasted my life!
Neither seriousness prevailed, nor passion conquered.

30. Neither up to the stars, nor contentedness for me
My hopes leaned toward the nearby foothill.

31. The foothill—no eagles aspire to it!
You may blame me, but I don't deny my journey

32. Hardships stood on the long road.
I took from the nights their essence

33. A little, and said: A little of your pleasure is enough.
I praise the Bestower of enough, so long as

34. My cup was never filled with a single drop!
Blessed is he who made love an ever-flowing stream

35. And quenched with it his loved ones, to their joy.
Seventy years you lived, nay twice that span,

36. With well-being and rectitude in the eighties.