نَصَلَ الحَوْلُ وأراني

بعدُ من سَكْرةِ النوى مخمورا

The years have passed and I see myself

Inebriated after the intoxication of youth has faded

أرجِعوا لي أيامَ رامةَ إنْ كا

ن لِما كان وانقضى أنْ يَحورا

Return to me the days of Ramah, if it were possible

For what has passed to be reversed

وشبابا ما كنتُ من قبل نَشْرِ ال

شيب أخشى غُرابَه أنْ يَطيرا

And a youth when I had not yet feared

The crow of white hair that might fly away

إنْ تكنْ أَعيُنُ المَها أنكرتْنِي

فلَعَمْرِي لقد أَصَبْن نكيرا

If the eyes of the beautiful ones have denied me

By my life, they have surely mistaken someone else for me

زاورتْ خُلَّتَيْن منيَ إقتا

را يُقَذِّى عيونَها وقَتيرا

Two dear female friends of mine paid a visit

To console eyes that had become dormant

كنتُ ما قد عَرَفْنَ ثم انْتَحَتْني

غِيَرٌ لم أُطِق لها تغييرا

I was as they had known me before, then they regarded me as a stranger

I could not bear their estrangement

وخُطوبٌ تُحيل صِبْغتها الأب

شارَ فضلا عن أن تُحيل الشعورا

And sorrows that turn the color of happy tidings pale

Let alone change the hair’s appearance

وافتقادي من الكرام رجالا

كان عيبي في ظلهم مستورا

And being forgotten by noble men

In whose company my faults were concealed

فارقوني فقلَّلوني وكم كا

ثَرْتُ دهري بهم فكنت كثيرا

They abandoned me and diminished me, yet how much

I had enriched my life through them, I was bountiful