لَمْ أَنَلْ في الشَّبابِ ما نِلْتُهُ عِن

دَ مَشيبي من افتِراعِ المعاني

In youth I failed to gain what in old age

I extracted from the mines of poetry.

كُلُّ بِكْرٍ ما افتضَّها مِن فُحولِ الشَّ

عْرِ عِندِي يَالَيتَ ذا في الغَواني

Every maiden poem I plucked in the days

Of early manhood - would that it were now!