If you're learning Arabic here is a relatively simple, very famous 4-line poem with literal translation, a recitation, and some notes. Feel free to ask questions.
Here's the text. It's al-wāfir meter.
Here's the text. It's al-wāfir meter.
Comments
neither weeping nor mourning availed.
The poem is a typical of a recognized ubi sunt genre in Arabic poetry that contrasts al-shayb (white hair) and youth (al-shabāb). That structure and pun does not originate in this poem.
[whose death] white hair and the dyed head announced.
asiftu asafan: cognate accusative/mafʿūl muṭlaq, verb + acc. maṣadar for emphasis
naʿā means “to announce the death of,” hence the square brackets
just as a bough is denuded of leaves.
ghaḍḍan is the acc. kabhar (predicate) of kāna
qaḍīb is the subject of yaʿrā
so that I could inform it what white hair has done.
layta (would that) makes its subject acc. (youth) and the predicate is the sentence yaʿūdu yawman. yawman is adverbial.
Like I said feel free to ask any questions! Here's a recitation. I don't love the drama but it's slow and the text is clear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStODFC6JDI