1. The sides of my youth are nudged by mature age,
And time has hurried me to gray hair.

2. How much remains of the deep night,
And the striking of fate with her sandals!

3. Youth's prime came, and I was thrown from it
Onto its sides, marked for riding.

4. They said gray hair has come upon you, and I said
Welcome the light of the curling branch's twigs.

5. Never before your brand did I have a lover,
So your whiteness distances me from the beloved.

6. Nor did the cloak of youth cover a fault for me,
That would be distressed to slumber over my flaws.

7. I did not blame your dawn in me for a thing,
Save the nearness of dawn to commoners.

8. Greatest of what I face is my time
Counts my beauties against me as sins.

9. I say, when filled with sadness for myself,
“O self, be patient forever, and be gentle!”

10. “Leave plunging into darkness in every land,
And cease refined and commoner.”

11. It pulls the reins of passions, flowing
As the buckets incline toward wheels.

12. Luxuriously, to the limits, until
It complains in the gut from gluttony.

13. So luck is not for the defending hero,
Nor favor for the awe-inspiring man.

14. And livelihood is grasped from afar,
Like grasping livelihood from near.

15. The goal of those ascending the heights
Is like the goal of those who stood from climbing.

16. Does not time gather us all
To a pasture of events bending us down?

17. Each of us is struck there
By its calamities with a deep wound.

18. I see the cold of chastity makes a face
More beautiful than a face with gray hair.

19. My skill in shooting is true when I shoot,
And the Lord of shooting knows best the bullseye.

20. I have spurring of steeds and packing of provisions,
Yet I know not the hidden things.

21. It will not avail you to ascend
If your striving is in youth.

22. Tyrannies bowed to evildoers,
And citadels to the unjust.

23. I came out of a breach like the sky,
At a gallop that kneels down in the plains.

24. Every day it trails its bridle
To enemies with fingers clasped.

25. I raided encampments until
The stars withdrew into their settings.

26. And armies I drove until
They trampled upon skulls and ruins.

27. A day the war horses thunder in,
As bees shred the rose's nectar.

28. I tore open their periods with the spear when
They called my name—what a respondent you are!

29. And when eminent people embrace,
Clashing of peer with peer wears down.

30. Your brotherhood, O Ali, sweetened my drink,
And your love, O Ali, relieved my worries.

31. So help me, when nights
Count up against me, and protect me in wars!

32. I marveled at people, and you were among them,
Yet your like among people is wondrous.

33. You excel over them in every matter
With the length of experience and a liberal heart.

34. Capable at their festivals with ease,
Without any awkwardness or harshness.

35. Speech like waters of Muzn flow,
Whose places of descent revive hearts.

36. Determination—if you go straight with it,
The rain of spears flowed with blood.

37. And forbearance—if you turn back with it,
It holds back the gifts of the painful day.

38. And words, as a left hand plays with them
In a fertile garden.

39. With a gaze not lowered in humility
And a heart not restless from anguish.

40. It plays proudly at your festival, and rise there
The necks of distinguished youths.

41. And live pure of sediment from misfortunes,
With it devoid of blemishes.

42. Perhaps I will move you in some desire,
And attain of you the slipping of sunset.

43. A pilgrim in my conscience with knotty problems—
I will deliver them to a determined will.

44. I will settle them, or settle my concerns—
A stranger in a foreign land.

45. Competing to the heights until
I wrap myself in its curling tresses.

46. Either we attain its side, or
The meeting of two prostrate.