1. Buthaina says, when she saw
Strands of red hair:

2. “My beauty is gone, and youth has passed away.”
So I said: “Buthaina, make it brief!

3. Have you forgotten our days in al-Liwa’,
And our days among the large-eyed gazelles?

4. Don’t you remember seeing me once
On nights when we were in Dhi Juhur,

5. Nights when you were our neighbours—
Oh, do you not remember? Remember!

6. When I was in the freshness of youth
I would let down my cloak, and my sash,

7. And my plaits were like a raven’s wings,
Scented with musk and ambergris.

8. But what you know has changed—
Changed like these wicked times.

9. You’re like a pearl of the sea
That did not squeeze out its juice of youth.

10. Soon both our tents will be folded away.
So how is it I have grown old when you have not?”