I was having a discussion with a group of scholars in the Damascus mosque when a young man entered and said: Is there anyone here who knows the Persian language?

Most of them pointed to me.

I said to him: What is it?

He said: A 150-year-old man is dying and is saying something in Persian that we cannot understand. If you would kindly take the trouble, you will be rewarded; perhaps he is making a will.

When I went to his bedside, he was saying this:

I had hoped to spend a few more moments as I wished

Alas, the passage of breath has been blocked.

Alas, from the colorful table of life

We had taken a breath, and they said, 'Enough.'

I explained the meaning of these words in Arabic to the Syrians, and they were amazed by his long life and his continued regret for worldly life.

I said: How are you in this condition?

He said: What can I say?

Have you not seen the hardship that befalls someone

Whose tooth is being extracted from his mouth?

Imagine what the state will be at that hour

When a soul departs from its dear existence.

I said: Banish the thought of death from your mind and do not let illusion overcome your nature, for the philosophers of Greece have said that even if the temperament is balanced, one cannot rely on survival, and even if the illness is severe, it does not necessarily indicate complete destruction. If you wish, I will call a physician to treat you.

He opened his eyes, laughed, and said:

The skilled physician wrings his hands

When he sees his opponent fallen into senility.

The master is preoccupied with the decoration of the portico

While the house is ruined from its foundations.

An old man was groaning in the throes of death

His old wife was rubbing sandalwood on him.

When the balance of the temperament is disturbed

Neither determination nor cure has any effect.