1. Greetings to the era of youth and adolescence
Welcome, welcome to old age as it comes

2. O you who left me, you left with honor
O you who stays with me, you are most welcome

3. My friends, old age is a street
That abolishes the laws of youth and adolescence

4. And yet some youth remains in me
That renews in me passion and desire

5.
I yearn for you whenever dawn breaks

6. And ask about you when the morning breeze blows
My face remained white in love of you

7. Until that whiteness flowed away and turned gray
This grayness you see on my temples

8. Should not keep me from passion and joy
It is but the light of lips I kissed

9. That clung to the edges of my hair and set them ablaze
I delight in the wordplay between it and me

10. For when it appeared bearded, I began to gray
And Hayfa, white of shawl, saw

11. My grayness and showed shock and wonder
She attributed this grayness to me, then shunned me

12. So woe to one who attributes and shuns
My cheek complements hers in whiteness

13. And would still were it dark, for that is more fitting
And though passion shook my robes

14. I refused the world's pleasures and remained chaste

15. I come to all people with integrity
And only to a friend do I show humility

16. And if you say I love the tambourine and Zainab
You speak true, ask about me the tambourine and Zainab