1. After eighty my passion faded away
And illness overcame me, how sweet to depart!

2. After eighty my youth refused
Except to recede from my aged forehead!

3. Except to withdraw from a lethal desire
With which a mouth and a flirting glance assail me!

4. I lived my life listening to passion
So for me - alas, what an evil guide!

5. I used to be an unsheathed sword then disappeared
In its sheath without a ringing sound!

6. The days of youth have passed. After them
My prime of life hurried away from the path!

7. Would that I had avoided
This passion, this woeful misguidance!

8. I did not know I was swimming
In mire which I thought a paved road!

9. But it was - then it escaped and did not
Mislead me with the deceitful mirage!

10. It used to be a sword over my head, if
I disobeyed it, I would be the slain victim!

11. Woe is me! Did the sultry heat level
My feet in it with the shady palm-tree?!

12. But I was the young man wandering
In the dark drinking from the thick turbid wine!

13. My companions blame me but I do not notice them,
Rather I walk erect with neighing!

14. After grey hairs that
Exhausted me.. I feel that I am the invalid!

15. An invalid with a trembling emaciated body
Bending over his stick at dawn and nightfall!

16. Moaning in silence lest anyone should see
Tears from him and to hide the wailing!

17. Woe is me for the embers with which I was branded
And the ardour and sleepless nights of my love!

18. And from a conscience whose advice I did not heed
As if it demanded the impossible from me!

19. It rebukes me with a rebuke that pours down
Blood that flows and has no stauncher!

20. So woe for disobedience that has passed but still
Afflicts the present with heavy concerns!

21. O my conscience.. I do repent,
So where is the might sought by the abject?!

22. I used to be a wailing owl in the dark,
So how can I in daylight sing the love-song?!

23. And poetry - how often I sent it buzzing
To produce in feeble prosody precious pearls!

24. With Indian swords it melts the warriors
And the spears dance.. so slender!

25. And love almost killed me as I killed it
And the active perhaps conquered the inert!

26. With poetry I was the lofty orator
Who gained war with a sharpened sword!

27. Often beauty surrendered to me so I honoured it
After it surrendered, though it had been avaricious!

28. That was an era in which I was once
Arrogant. And little of it remains!

29. Would that it had never been
And that I had been the feeble emaciated man!

30. For weakness might have protected me
From tyranny in which I delighted!

31. And today I am a trembling skeleton
Whose freshness the winds have wasted and extinguished the remainders!

32. Crawling.. inhaling some fragrance
From his garden gone to waste and the dew of the palms!

33. After it had abundant drops of dew
With ripe fruit.. and palms luxuriant!

34. I pray God for forgiveness and hope for guidance
From Him in the form of a beautiful pardon!

35. There - how beautiful are those dwellings
That give tranquility, and how happy is the lodger!

36. And O my companions and intimate friends
Who were my fresh and fragrant passion!

37. He among them who still remains has not ceased to adorn it
And his tribe still takes pride in him!

38. And he who turned away, he is in his abode,
That which honours him with abundant favour!

39. How they crowned me with pleasures sweet
And visions that enchant and attract!

40. And I never complained of sorrow
Except they came with the reward that dispels it!

41. I invoke mercy for the departed
And blessings for the rest of the company!

42. And I hope they will forgive me for
What was done by me before the day of departure!