جِلالُ مَشيبٍ نَزَل
وَأُنسُ شَبابٍ رَحَل
The dignity of gray hair has descended;
The glory of gray hair has come down
and the delight of youth has departed.
And the intimacy of youth has departed
طَوى صاحِبٌ صاحِباً
كَذاكَ اِختِلافُ الدُوَل
One companion has folded another away—
One friend has folded another friend
such is the alternation of fortunes.
Thus is the changing of fortunes
شَبابُ كَأَن لَم يَكُن
وَشَيبٌ كَأَن لَم يَزَل
Youth—as though it had never been;
Youth is as if it had never been
and gray hair—as though it had always been.
And old age as if it had never ceased
كَأَنَّ حُسورَ الصِبا
عَن الشَيبِ حينَ اِشتَعَل
As though youth's falling away
As if the temples of youth
from gray hair, when it blazed,
Had not blazed against white hair
زُها أَمَل مونِقٍ
أَطَلَّ عَلَيهِ أَجَل
were the splendor of a lovely hope
Its hopes a promising sapling
over which death loomed.
Which fate had cut down
أَعاذِلَتي أَقصِري
كَفاك المَشيبُ العَذَل
O my reproacher, desist!
My reproaches, be brief
Gray hair has done your reproaching for you.
Gray hair and decline are enough
بَدا بَدَلاً بِالشَبا
بِ لَيتَ الشَبابَ البَدَل
It appeared as a replacement for youth—
He has substituted for youth
would that youth were the replacement!
If only youth could substitute for him
جَلالٌ وَلكِنَّهُ
تَحاماهُ حورُ المُقَل
Dignity—yet it
Majesty but it is
has been shunned by dark-eyed beauties.
Veiled by the bashfulness of the eyelids
Sol 6.1