445 – Muḥammad ibn Sahl ibn Bassām ⦗192⦘ al-Azdī related to me, from Hishām ibn Muḥammad, who said: al-Salatan al-ʿAbdī recited:
[metre: al-Baḥr al-Mutaqārib]
The passing of day and the return of dusk
have streaked the young with grey and worn the old away.
When one night tears down the day beside it,
a fresh, unspent day is quick to arrive.
We set out and return to attend to our needs,
yet the needs of the living are never complete.
A man’s desires perish only when he does—
so long as he draws breath, one longing remains.