172 – Sulaymān ibn Abī Sinha related to me, saying: Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥakam recited for me a poem by al-Aʿshā of Hamdān:

Nothing of all that he once hoarded will he still desire
except some embalming perfume, the paltry gear of parting,
and a few worn-out strips of cloth.

Beyond that, only a whiff of kindling sticks
will be set ablaze for him—
scant provisions indeed
for a traveler bound to depart.

Do not grieve over anything in this world:
every youth is making his way home,
carried upon another’s neck.

Whoever imagines that death will overlook him
is soothing himself
with the fantasies of folly.

And what man can claim that his appointed end is deferred—
save an elder already journeying toward it,
towering though he once stood?