159 – Abu al-Hasan Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Jabir recited to me ⦗79⦘
[hazaj meter]

O you who pursue a goal that can never be attained,
—and you whose grasp on this world and its blossom grows ever tighter—
will not the man of boundless hopes desist
when the turns of time outpace him?

No sooner is a person at the height of his reason
than sudden events come knocking at his door.

I see the world luring a man with promises
it will never bring to pass;
he deceives himself about it,
while the uncertainties of time soon prove him wrong.

Never have I seen a company gathered
but that the hand of this world scattered it.