1. Her charms made my gaze turn away reproachfully,
And her excellence forbade me to compare her.

2. You can see the arrogance of a queen on her brow,
Reading a line filled with awe.

3. She whose forefathers and ancestors were
Nothing but kings is not to be fabricated if she claims descent.

4. O you who look upon Islam, are you looking
Upon a servant who praised you and was verbose?

5. Upon a poet who called out with greed exposed
Like the open mouth of a leopard, so you shrank in fear?

6. Did not the drinking of wine tell the tale of me,
And did not the caravan sing of me when I was sober?

7. Did not the maidens speak of my missteps
In the tents, as they flipped over the dyed cinnamon?

8. My poetry ransomed those poetasters gloating over my story,
A star rising in the heaven of verse.

9. A lad who did not travel except to what he composed and recited,
Even if the arrogant among them clamored and bellowed.

10. They thought that if I fell I would be shattered,
My rhymes broken, my ideas scattered.

11. My body weakened so they insulted me or pretended sympathy,
But there was anger between my jaws that did not speak.

12. How much poetry flows from one who turns away,
Below the words of one firm and attacking!

13. Ask death about me, how I made its strangeness recoil,
My soul struggling against it, angry and indignant.

14. We drank, and drinking after our pleasure
Was like narcissus before youth turned white.

15. The Tigris bares on the riverbank a shore
That undulates, while a current whispers and murmurs.

16. For us there was a night in the brow of fate,
Like your ardour, for living in it was most fruitful.

17. Time pardoned it after having been angry,
And was kind to it after having been blameworthy.

18. Oh, my joy, if only I survived safe and sound,
And oh, my misery, if only my ship did not flounder and sink!

19. If I do not act wild in the last of my revelry,
No shame if passion comes upon me, leaping.

20. And patience toward the best and worst of wine
Is what I say, "Welcome to goblets and greetings!"

21. My soul is dyed red with the coloring of tranquility,
And I come with some of my blood already dyed.

22. If the minister's eye saw a poet
On a ship that Allah has made seaworthy,

23. He would see play dead and pleasure prostrate,
Slain, and the body of joy tortured.

24. The elders of my people blamed me and exaggerated,
Foolishness upon my life, harm and wonder.

25. They say to me, repent, do not return to the like of it,
But alas, their admonition is lost on me, fruitless.

26. How many times before have I died from drink,
Only to return, for the return was sweeter and more delicious.

27. Always either you see me dragging along
My robes in drunkenness, or broken in dissipation.

28. But the duty of carrying my goods falls on
The freemen if the fate of time takes me away.

29. And when we were cut off from union with annihilation,
And a year passed that had been hoped for and was barren,

30. We pawned, sold, and bought us cups
And jewelry and buried treasure, beloved.

31. I saw my daughter had saved some of her jewelry,
So I recited to her allusively and subtly:

32. “The anklets of women wander, but I do not see
A single anklet on a delicate foot.” She said:

33. “Father, I took the slave girls’ jewelry and left
No bracelet or necklace round the throat untaken.”

34. I said to her: “The minister’s protection sustains us
When time is pleased with it, so reproach it not.”

35. “If the full moon of King Sapor is rising,
I care naught after it for those who set.”