إِذا ما تَقَضّى الأَربَعونَ فَلا تُرِد

سِوى اِمرَأَةٍ في الأَربَعينَ لَها قِسمُ

When forty years are done, desire no more

Save a maid in her forties with a fate in store,

فَإِنَّ الَّذي وَفّى الثَلاثينَ وَاِرتَقى

عَلَيهُنَّ عَشراً لِلفَناءِ بِهِ وَسمُ

For he who thirties past did shun and soar

On them must add ten more to deathward bore.

زَمانُ الغَواني عَصرَ جِسمَكَ زائِدٌ

وَهُنَّ عَناءٌ بَعدَ أَن يَقِفَ الجِسمُ

Time of delight is plus to body's need;

And they are toil when power to joy recede.

سَأَلتَ بَني الأَيّامِ عَن ذاهِبِ الصِبا

كَأَنَّكَ قُلتَ الآنَ ما فَعَلَت طَسمُ

The days thou askest of lost youth, indeed,

As though saying "Whither went the talisman?"

تُريدُ مِنَ الدُنيا خِلافاً لِما مَضى

وَأَعياكَ تَدبيرٌ بِهِ سَبَقَ الرَسمُ

From life thou seekest what is past and fled,

And thou art tasked beyond what Fate hath sped.

هُوَ الداءُ لا يَنفَكُّ يُشكى وَيُشتَكى

وَلَو شاءَ رَبُّ الناسِ أَدرَكَهُ الحَسمُ

The ill clings fast and is bemoaned and pled,

Though God of men, an He but willed, th' account would read.

مَضى الشَخصُ ثُمَّ الذِكرُ فَاِنقَرَضا مَعاً

وَما ماتَ كُلَّ المَوت مَن عاشَ مِنهُ اِسمُ

The person passed, and eke the name is dead,

Not wholly dead who lives by deixis dread.