1. Alas for my days in the embraces of anguish,
While fate smiles at the bereaved and the earth is still damp.

2. When my exuberant youth cast its shadows,
And my boyhood excused my heedlessness,

3. And my infatuation, whenever it appeared,
Filled the eye sockets of the bashful with languor.

4. Then its time passed, pure,
While he who hopes for the return of the past,

5. Neither will youth come back when it grows old,
Nor the vigils of the fever return.

6. And I have a yearning too great for my ribs,
For the meadow keeps a fire burning in the bowels.

7. And inside me a passion I keep secret,
And an agony that dwells in the folds of my heart.

8. Happy the age of meadows, and its people,
Where gazelles are protected by thickets.

9. The garden extends, blossoming,
Its flowers beneath the pebbles of sprinkling dew.

10. And the anemones smile
When whispered to by the breeze at night.

11. Their narcissi reveal a flirtatious glance
That makes tears almost flow from the corners of the eyes.

12. Such were my times; my tears knew no stopping
Until that time passed and came to an end.

13. And a youth perished as if
It were a prisoner in the pit of life.

14. And my head ignited, so my freshness faded
Into whiteness, and in white hair are dignity and maturity.

15. It is more splendid to look at than youth,
While far from the radiant dawn is gloom.

16. Man is not pleased by its rising;
It troubles him, while youth is craved.

17. After it comes white hair, and in it is a garment;
And after white hair there is only decay.

18. All that death leads towards
Is to it as death leading to the grave.

19. The soul plays with wishes, foolishly,
While death lies in wait for souls.

20. They competed above the earth for wealth,
Yet the poor and the wealthy are equal underneath it.

21. Slave and master, their bones are alike,
As are child and elder, and young man and aged.

22. Yet you do not house well what you nurture
Of a body destined for ruin.

23. You honor it, yet none accompanies the one
Thrown in his grave, save piety.

24. And here am I, warned against what I fear
Of my excess, so the warner has come.

25. Whoever nears forty years of age
And is confused by his passion, will not be guided.

26. When the white hairs of my forelock spread,
I wrapped my intestines around burning embers.

27. And if its morning cast shadows upon me,
The night of youth did not abandon my heart.

28. And I continued to wander in its gown
Among the doe-eyed gazelles, like succulent fruits.

29. However she walked with affected gait, I thought her
Weary, while the magic was drawn from her.

30. She is like a bough shaken with luxury,
Or like a bucket jangling at the well.

31. She lowers her eyes like a frightened gazelle,
Or blinks like a soft-eyed doe.

32. Her words are relaxed, her glances weakened,
Yet sorcery is extracted from her.

33. I was the black of her eye until she saw
The whiteness of my hair, so she turned away.

34. She gave me a sly glance from eyes
In which I had been an infatuation, but became a speck.

35. Ignorance dispersed, so it hid its fire,
When the sparkle of a cinder emitted rays of proof.

36. A drowsiness was stripped from my eyelids
By my consciousness of the Most High.

37. So I wiped the saddlebags of thoroughbred steeds
That carried my companions with the saddlebags of racers.

38. All rugged, not complaining of salt or gravel,
The winds blow hot upon their manes as the lightning flashes behind them when they race.

39. Like fire if you rouse them in their settlement,
And like water if you calm them, they flow.

40. They stamp the ground with each hoof
Like a staff, yet they are as smooth as a plateau.

41. And they are disheveled like horses accustomed
To walking beautifully among the dunes during battle.

42. Above them is the swaying of wolves
Under the saddlecloth like forest lions.

43. Fiery-necked like falcons, their battle cries
Mingle with their glittering swords like flocks of vultures.

44. And they ignited two fires of might and sharpness
Where the vanguards were consumed by them, or the rear guards.

45. One of them for battle, harsh,
The other for the homes, rekindled,

46. Wearing armors like mirrors
off of which swords glance, their blades bent.

47. Polished links as if
Woven with the eyes of gold dust.

48. If spears penetrated them you would think them
Fish swimming through water.

49. So their fringes stroke swords
As if stamped with steel.

50. Or the sun glanced at them
And stole its rays - the brilliance of daybreak.

51. And the coward did not set his eyes upon them
Unless they met his gaze with their blades.

52. The quivering of my friend's mount
For whoever called for war or confessed defeat.

53. Its back almost bends double
Like a tree snake in its burrow bending its trunk.

54. And the women launch
Smooth pebbles at the enemy with the hands of boys.

55. No blindness or paralysis is condoned among them,
Tell them, no feebleness or blindness!

56. It is as if their eyes are reddened
With anger, lined with menace.

57. Whenever they make an oath to an enemy -
A pillar erected to the heavens from the Umayyads.

58. From a stock whose origin
Lies deep in the ground and its branches touch the sky.

59. The descendants of God's friend, his elect,
The upright caliphs, and through them

60. The religion was illuminated by a beacon and guided.
The Umayyads who planted

61. In its defense the tips of spears in kidneys.
The Abbasids met their enemies,

62. So their swords arbitrated upon the vanguards.
And a people like mine, from Arabs

63. And from Ma'add ibn Adnan among the tribes.
Love of them is the protection of every reverent soul,

64. They are the lanterns of guidance for the misguided.
Whoever puts his hopes in them

65. Clings to a rope the strong cannot sever.
If you pass them for others

66. The allure of wishes will take hold of you.
The aspiration of one seeking

67. Salvation has no ascent but to them.
They are the shelter for people. Whoever does not

68. Take refuge in them, his religion is on the brink.
Successors who ruled the people while they

69. Were like beneficent camels, open-handed and compliant.
They possessed the world while it was barren,

70. It had no beauty but their pursuits.
If they waged war, their anger satisfied the swords,

71. Or if they made peace, they steadfastly pursued forbearance.
No scandal is uttered about them, and through them

72. The ignorant avoid insulting the honored.
And they extend open-handed

73. Such that the cups of wealth are filled by them.
I will follow their guidance to the heights,

74. And below their forests lies the attainment of my goal.
How I avert my eyes from the speck

75. And fold up my eyelids from the burning!
In a clan whose nearness enriches the noble,

76. While the worst of your ills contains rancor.
Fate struck me with them, though I know not

77. Which enemy of mine it aimed at.
If only you knew some of what he conceals

78. You would not be reassured by all you see.
He composes himself despite his anger

79. While his heart contains agony.
He does not smile when fortune lifts him

80. Or hardship casts him down, he does not weep.
The sword, its melodiousness is not known

81. While it is sheathed, until it is drawn.
And if action does not prove a saying

82. Its verification, then it is fabricated talk.
And this is a poem resembling

83. Water you pour upon echoing stone.
If the reciter warbles it to a tune

84. The listener picks up the parts he narrates.
And whoever desires to attain its heights

85. Will plummet into hardship from its summits.
For poetry is rejected unless its composer

86. Defends it, and natural genius protects it from contrived artifice.