1. How to abstain from youth and wine
Judge that for us, O reproacher by measure

2. And if I number my years how many are they, I cannot find
For gray hair an excuse in letting it fall on my head

3. They said, you wrenched it, so I said, my hand has not wrenched
From urging to my mouth the goblet

4. Yellow, adorned are its meads boiled
So for it is the refined praise of the taster

5. And as if its drinker from the excess of its radiance
In the night swallows in the brightness of the lamp’s flame

6. And sweeter than the favor of the privacy of a lover
That met him after difficulty and aloofness

7. So comfort is a perfume, and its perfection
Is only in the scent of the fine companions

8. So if I abstain from misguidance let
That abstinence be for God, not people

9. And if you want to praise people from whom you expect
No praise, then praise the Abbasids