1. The days have announced your impending departure.
Are you not listening or has deafness come upon you?

2. Those you saw have passed before you
While you remain for those left behind to catch up with you.

3. Why do I see you as though your eyes do not see
Tears flowing as if they were arrows.

4. Hardships come while you remain oblivious to them,
Then pass as though they were dreams.

5. The impetuosities of youth have bid you farewell,
So beware, for after them you have no respite.

6. Gray hair has succeeded youth as your companion,
And both are beautiful adornments and decorum for you.

7. And both are compelling proofs against you,
And both are blessings bestowed generously upon you.

8. Greetings and welcome to gray hair, well-mannered,
And to youth, regards and peace.

9. You were blessed with the glory of youth,
And gray hair has clothed you with dignity and faith.

10. To God belong eras whose men I knew
To be honorable in vicissitudes, and they are noblemen.

11. Days when the generous hands gave abundantly,
For the honored man does not lose his honor.

12. You have been spared for the lessons of an era in which
Widows and orphans have perished.

13. An era whose earnings are ill-gotten,
Whose origins and branches are sins.

14. An era whose generous deeds are rare,
As though acts of generosity have become forbidden.

15. An era whose luminaries have fallen and whose banners are torn,
So its people no longer have banners.

16. I have seen those who gorged on what they lusted for,
Yet became a repast of dust over their plates.

17. The ornaments and glitter of this life and its people
Are nothing but delusions and rubble.

18. Many a people have passed away on their path,
And so too will pass as passed the ancients.

19. Many who slept on cushioned beds,
Awoke to rubble piled upon them from dust.

20. I wondered that the ailments of graves are numerous
While people sleep to the ailments of their graves.

21. Misguidance is crowded with perils
While righteousness is smooth, unencumbered.

22. Death wages on while eyes are content,
Playing and sleeping in wishes and slumber.

23. God decrees all matters with His knowledge,
And man is sometimes praised and sometimes blamed.

24. People present each other, the latter
Driving the former to old ruins.

25. All hope for survival, while days
Spin them round to oblivion.

26. Everlasting is the Kingship of the Lord of Majesty,
The One beyond all limitations of thought.

27. People innovate in their whims,
Innovations they have sat and stood by.

28. Whoever does not forbid himself
From dubious matters has neither yielded nor found peace.

29. Muhammad, if you follow his path
In all good, is your guide and imam.

30. All that was or is to be
Has been transcribed by the pens.

31. So praise be to God, the Everlasting,
Beyond whom nothing endures eternally.

32. And praise be to God whose Majesty and Forbearance
Dwarf all aspirations.

33. And praise be to God, who has always been,
Beyond the grasp of thoughts.

34. Glorified is He, the Exalted King,
To His Essence is awe and honor.