1. Alas, may God destroy Baghdad, once bright
And destroy the borrowed pleasures of life within,

2. I spend nights drawing the cold of youth over me in wonder, fooled by its novelty,
For gray hair inevitably followed it,

3. And does wine lead to anything but tipsiness?
Congratulations to my dream that I have granted it the passion it desired and abandoned harmful drinking,

4. And stealing secret glances with my eyes dim with longing,
Show kindness, for after sunset

5. I know of my fault and remorse,
And I have not ceased disliking the absence of men since you left, until I disliked secrets,

6. So I have become barren to misfortunes and freely pour out my laments,
You consider the matter of the weak but evil seems good to you,

7. Usamah looks down on a man for his clothes and seeks to flee from him,
By my life, the knot of worries has been untied by the greatest

8. Who makes the earth seem small as he spreads
Khorasan in his right hand

9. And pounds the desert land with his left,
Until only the abode of humility remained, its best state to be a neighbor,

10. A young man who consults no one about his concerns
And takes no action without careful consideration,

11. So inform him with a letter or voice
Of one suffering who does not mind the difficulty,

12. You have read my letters of longing yet your affection did not increase,
Do you tell us of meetings when you would not even light a fire?

13. He disdains the brave but drives away
The vile out of contempt,

14. Eyes that see hated faces – if fear left you waiting
For every raging spark whose running does not cease,

15. With flaming blade that makes the brave shudder cautiously,
Deceiving your eye until you imagine

16. The surface of its water is vacant land,
White but becomes brown when it touches blood,

17. It leaves the palm of the skilled physician who seeks to heal its edge,
So O crown of the community of the Lord of servants, not the crown of an insincere community,

18. No prayer you have uttered falsely,
No title you have borrowed,

19. The days alarm me with what they bring
And what else do I fear besides your betrayal?

20. And still I emerge from its twists
Like the charging horses bursting forth through dust,

21. You have relieved me of hardship until your palm seemed
To place prosperity in my left hand,

22. So do not make gratitude my limit,
I fear stumbling in that out of inadequacy,

23. For your captivity pleases me
And I never loved captivity before you,

24. One who praises himself deludes you
And trials reveal the best,

25. Had you sought the flowers of Edom
The night would not have raised its lanterns,

26. And the hidden lover asking where his companion went
Would not roam by the light of your fire,

27. I bear witness that in leaving it
You protect yourself and observe propriety,

28. A poised stance for you in self-restraint
From which solemnity steals grandeur,

29. And depth of character where the torrent finds no rest,
When minds are sought, it plays with them

30. The play of the gazelle’s glance – a confusing game,
Like a people whose hopes you extended

31. Then were their ruin,
Your cunning wears its own clothes

32. As the chameleon wears camouflage,
The discerning says, when he sees it,

33. “Was this not an earring?”
Though fire may lie in its coil

34. And it refuses along with mankind anything but borrowed light,
If the days knew how your nearness increased them

35. And closeness did not lead to aversion,
Its sun would never be strange

36. Nor its night the opposite of its day.