طرازُ مشيبٍ في عذارٍ له نَقْشُ

وفي كبِدي منه جروحٌ لها أَرْشُ

The style of gray hair in a youth has an engraving,

And in my heart are wounds that have a bandage.

إذا نظرتْ ليلى إليه تَنهَّدتْ

وبادَر من أمطار أَدمُعِها رَشّ

When Layla looks at it she sighs,

And the rain of her tears begins to drizzle.

ولو شئتُ أَخْفاه الخِضابُ وإنما

أنا أتّقى من أنْ يُداخِله غش

If I wanted to I could hide the dye but,

I fear that duplicity might infiltrate it.

فقلتُ لها يا ليلُ إنْ شاب عارِضى

فما شاب لي عزمٌ ولا وَهَنَ البطش

So I said, “Oh Layla, if the hair of my temple has turned white,

My determination has not weakened, nor my might.”

فلا تُنْكرى من نهضتي ما عرفِته

وما هي إلا فوقَ ماعهِد الفرش

“Do not deny what you have known of me raising up

It is nothing but more than what the mattress is used to.”

فلم يَثْنِها ما قلتُ حتى كأنما

كلاميَ سِرٌّ قابلتْ لفظَه الطُّرْش

My words did not convince her, as if

My speech met deaf ears and was received coldly.

وقالت أَقِلْني إنما كلُّ شعرةٍ

لشيبك أفعى في فؤادي لها نَهْش

And she said, “Tell me, for every gray hair

Is a snake in my heart that bites.”

إذا المرء خانْته الشَّبيبةُ وانتهى

إلى الشيبِ فالأَوْلى بجثته النعش

When a man is abandoned by his youth and comes

To have gray hair, it is best for his body to have a coffin.