1. أَمسى شَبابُكَ عَنّا الغَضُّ قَد حَسَرا

    لَيتَ الشَبابَ جَديدٌ كالَّذي عَبَرا

    Your tender youth has now receded from us.

    Would that youth were renewed, like the youth that passed.

  2. إِنَّ الشَبابَ وَأَيّاماً لَهُ سَلَفَت

    وَلَّى وَلَم أَقضِ مِن لَذّاتِهِ وَطَرا

    Indeed, youth and its days gone by

    Have departed, and I have not had my fill of its pleasures.

  3. أَودى الشَبابُ وَأَمسَت عَنكَ نازِحَةً

    جُملٌ وَبُتَّ جَديدُ الحَبلِ فانبَتَرا

    Youth has perished, and far from you now is

    Juml; the fresh cord was severed, so it snapped.

  4. فَاصبِر فَما لكَ إِلا أَن تَهيمَ بِها

    وَإِن تُهَيِّجكَ أَطلالٌ فَتَدَّكِرَا

    So be patient: nothing remains for you but to pine for her.

    And if ruins stir you, then you remember.

  5. أَمسَى وَقَد شابَ لا يَنسَى تَذَكُّرَها

    لا بَل يَزيدُ إِذا ما اسمٌ لَها ذُكِرَا

    Now, though grown gray, he never ceases to remember her;

    No—rather, his love grows whenever her name is mentioned.

  6. أَن لا يُغَيِّرَ وُدّاً فِي شَبيبَتِهِ

    لِلمالِكيَّةِ من قَد غَيَّر الشُّعَرَا

    That he should not alter the love he bore in his youth

    For al-Mālikiyyah—he whose hair has changed.