1. My friend is delighted by the singing of girls
While others enjoy pleasures and admire them

2. But I am not one whose mind wine captivates
Or whose hearing the piercing flute dominates

3. Rather I am a brother of worries which when
A difficulty towards misfortune leans

4. Banish sleep from my eyes, my defiant soul
Seeking between the edges of teeth its goal

5. Far from the abode of worries, so West is East
When it meets my eyes, and East is West

6. It has risings which beasts follow their shades
And birds follow their traces flutter and peck

7. The ambition of a soul made every glory small
And burdened days with what cannot be gained at all

8. He who has the ambition of a lofty soul as his
Everything he encounters in it is beloved of his

9. If I do not give virtues their due right
Then neither an unfaithful saddens me, nor a kinsman vexes me

10. Nor has an old coat of mail burdened me
Nor a worn out spear filled my palm

11. I was created high-minded, I do not see for the son of a freeman
A hand with me I would restrain when he becomes angry

12. So I am not for what has not been expected
Nor do I blame what has passed

13. I follow a path others see not
For each person there is in what he attempts a way

14. And if doubt darkens its night
And dreams become confused and branch out

15. I split the edges of my well-knit pearls with a star
Of opinion which the hidden does not escape

16. And a sea of waves I plunged into its billows
With no protection but the planed planks

17. Behind it the red of deaths and their darkness
Breakers vary in their colors and turn about

18. I centered it while steeds with steeds meet
And the whiteness of the ostrich appears and disappears in the dust

19. I did not stop until the war showed my stance
At a time when intellects disappear

20. From a morning until night came and darkness met
Over a hidden glow of brilliant stars

21. Such is my habit in enjoyment, and I
Frisk about in the ignorance of youth and play

22. And some youths of pleasure I called and for entertainment
Pavilions with eyelids lazy from drowsiness

23. To a square the breeze flows through
Sprinkling the carpets and dew drips

24. They had no sooner responded to my call
Hastening as a pond turtle moves

25. With steeds like mighty pillars behind them
Jumping vigorous horses with trailing drapes

26. Of milk, eating no provisions but what
They hunt, while game is tastier and fatter

27. You see every red-lined ostrich opening
Its mouth to the beasts, insatiate and erect

28. It nearly overtakes lightning when the daughter of water
Darts forth or a fox crosses

29. We reached a valley as if its slopes
Were the warp of the weaver interwoven

30. In which hopes rest after weariness
And the love-torn and grey-haired yearn

31. While we were surveying the land suddenly
Our guide saw a flock and said, “Mount!”

32. So we mounted steeds like their bodies
Were plaited twine of sarcenet interwoven

33.
When we arrived where he indicated loose

34. Hounds went and circled in the positions
Then in the twinkling of an eye snares caught

35. Game and the flesh was cooked and Márib broke up
We said to our cupbearers, “Pass it round, for the utmost

36. Of the days of man is that they intertwine.”
So he stood up to a jar of wine as if

37. When the eye met it, it was an angry black star
Seething pure in a vessel as if it

38. When fingers took it, was a planet
We did not stop until the land circled about us

39. And we saw the horizon withdraw and draw near
Till the day turned aside leaving only a little

40. And the shining sun was about to set
We were dragged home distracted to a house

41. Where play and pleasure for a friend reside
The couches of a reveler and the cradle of a warrior

42. And the chambers of goblets in which wine is poured
When the master of the house saw us his couches

43. Shone with delight and he came welcoming
And said, “Dismount, may God bless you

44. With me there is whatever you desire and better”
And he went to a vat whose age was complete

45. And its ridges greyed by time, very old
He did not stop until he drew from it a plug

46. Of wine floating in the vessel and settling
Birds from all directions hover over it

47. And the brilliant star roams over it
O, beauty of that day, if only it remained!

48. O, fragrance of this night, if only it stayed fragrant!
The youth desires what will not be greed

49. And did not know that time with people alternates
If man knew what benefits him

50. He would perceive what will come and what to avoid
But destiny runs its course over us

51. And the matter of the unseen is a veiled secret
We reckon we are able and that we

52. Lead just as the shackled are led and accompany
So may the mercy of the Lord of the worlds be upon one