1. Strange is Khawla's denial when she disowns me,
Or did Khawla see an old man who is now aged,

2. Whom time has clothed in hoary garments,
And whose back is bent from the burden of years?

3. If you see the white hair, I am still undaunted,
Of goodly experience, though no longer young.

4. Today I am not what I was yesterday,
O daughter of the clan, cease your disdain!

5. I have worn all the seasons of time
And excelled in every art that was fair.

6. My condition is easy though my hair is white,
With a gazelle-eyed youth, slender and tall.

7. I have lived as a gallant cavalier,
A bright planet of penetrating beams.

8. With a steed of generous stock when pressed,
Two daughters of a maternal uncle as my kin.

9. A sword of Indian steel is my ally,
Held in a slender wrist in a mailed glove,

10. A side that wards off the hostile spear,
While the other side is free from cowardly fear.

11. He is rosy-cheeked in his days of bloom,
And raven-dark when his youth is gone.

12. I rouse the wood-gatherers to start at dawn,
Hunting ostrich or wild cattle for our need.

13. A valiant champion of hardened courage,
Yet gentle when the wild dove makes her nest.

14. He charges and routs the nomad tribes,
A stallion of purest strain in the attack.