1. You ask me what I did in my fifties
Youthfulness fades but its qualities endure

2. In the heart there lies a treasure of endless youth
It gives and increases the more it bestows

3. None has lost their exuberance
Except to unleash a thousand more in their bosom

4. Does the scent of youth linger still
In all its most fragrant nooks?

5. Youth remains freshly manifest in its features
Its heart unfaded though its cheeks grow down

6. Roses don their hues to enchant us
Would roses swear we did not seduce them?

7. My soul is a nightingale in its cage of ribs
Unpacified even after we plucked it

8. This wine forever intoxicates with its sweetness
Pressing it from those reluctant lips

9. Exalted is He who created this world and adorned it
Oh poetry, purer than pure in all its qualities

10. We whom He chose among His beloveds
Were time to turn back, we would choose it again

11. And He honored poetry when articulating it finely
You were His sublime grace and meaning

12. And went reciting to us, perfect of lip
Alluring and maddening, so we regained balance

13. My soul is sacrifice should poverty befall us
Of that bounty and riches He bestowed

14. Whether He remembers or forgets, my eyes
Will not rest, nor my heart, if I forget Him

15. Oh You who quenched us with cups brimming with estrangement
The carpet of passion wept when we furled it