قد بلغت الستين ويحك فاعلم — أبو إسحاق الإلبيري

You have reached sixty—alas for you—so know

that what comes after is but a reprieve for you.

For when your years have ended and passed,

the Judge will pronounce judgment and make it final.

You are like a scroll, unrolled for a time,

then rolled up afterward and sealed.

How can a wise man delight in life

when Death has nocked arrows aimed at him?

He does not know when one of them will catch him unawares—

a shaft that strikes true, shattering backs and breaking them.

Why has my branch withered, though once fresh,

and my back bent, though once upright,

and my edge grown blunt, though once deadly,

and my army retreated, though once a mighty host?

And why has Time replaced the prime of my youth

with gray hair, scorned by beautiful women?

So today I am free of longing for them,

though once I was enslaved by love for them.

If one day Time were to butt with its horn

the flank of Thahlan, it would shatter it, and it would crumble.

We are in the abode of mortality, yet

it is a gate to eternity, and a ladder.

And Death's millstone turns upon us,

always grinding everyone and crushing them.

And I am certain of that, knowing it well,

yet my deeds are those of one who does not know.

And thus I make ease my mount, until

I am taken in death; then I shall feel remorse.

So perhaps He for whom I rub my face in dust

will see my need of Him and show mercy.

So my intercessor with Him is my good opinion of Him,

my hope in Him, and the fact that I am a Muslim.

And praise be to Him for guiding me to this,

as many times as there are raindrops, as long as doves sing.

And to Him go my humble plea and fervent prayer,

for my gray hairs to be spared from Hell.