1. Let me sip some pleasure before a slumber,
Which nearly makes the soul of the passionate vanish.

2. And I do understand matters, know their perils,
Though often my forbearance with men is innate.

3. When I saw the abode desolate, with wild beasts prowling,
And with the running ostrich and wandering antelopes.

4. I remembered the life in it and said to my friend:
“As if it had never been, when it would disappear.”

5. And I have no need, had time lent me success,
Like pearls in abundance and perfumed musk.

6. It seemed to me that time caused confusion in good fellowship
And that my remaining alive was little, if I lived.

7. So live in fear of death or without fear,
Upon every soul the turtledoves descend.

8. O friend, you have not presented acts of piety,
And there are no friends for the days of death.

9. I say to my heart, as it yearns for youth:
“Why so much discord and shocking events?”

10. Do you hope to live forever
When there have refused that the young and the old?