1. I decided to cool the heat of my embers,
And procure wine to cure my troubles,

2. And barter misery for any smile,
From any lip.

3. I cheer my cup with love,
My wine with my poetry, oh time!

4. One day for me you sang,
As if a thousand months.

5. I found life at the rise
Of a dawn by the bank of a river,

6. As if I had from the coolness of sweetness,
Wine cups overflowing.

7. And I thought I was a conqueror,
I can defeat the will of fate,

8. And I forgot that I am but
A morsel in the cheek of a feeble one.

9. I decided to spend my nights
Casting magic spells with my poetry,

10. And make rhythms in my verse
Match the waves of the sea.

11. And sew from the shreds of my sorrow,
Adornments for my poetry,

12. And breathe into my sighs
The green scents of meadows.

13. And protect my evenings peacefully,
Like a turtledove protects its nest.

14. I decided after getting
Used to time's trickery and scarcity,

15. And an ugly betrayal I denied
Was done by Zaid to Amr,

16. That I ransom with my blood when wounded,
The one I vowed to protect.

17. I stood halfway in perils
So the other half be safe.

18. Until when the wind shifted
And cleared the sky of its gloominess,

19. Evil will crowd greedily,
So fight the evilest.

20. I offered my face to slaps
Humbly, and surrendered my neck.

21. I decided to test manhood
On a day of battle and hardship,

22. And I saw the manliness of youth
In what brings benefit and harm.

23. And disliked trouble I'm not
Used to finding escape from.

24. I did not apologize for it, though
I can make a thousand excuses.

25. And disliked trouble not yet
Discovered, so I buried it in my chest.

26. I got used to it as the best
Reward, to awaken my fame amongst people.

27. From making tomorrow a dawn
From every benevolent one, the most benevolent.

28. And bargainers over rights
As if they're reciting scripture.

29. They extend to the naked souls
A hand, according to them, revealing;

30. What does it reveal? It's but
The fear of the shy on the unashamed.

31. Oh you who compete in their pureness
The pureness of angels on the day of gathering.

32. Far apart are your matters and mine
I have no horse like Antarah's,

33. Nor sword like Dhulfiqar of Omar.
My life will cut short my journey

34. I cannot complete the stretch of my life.
The horse grew old and still

35. His vigour persists like the new moon.
Freeing the reins, for if it

36. Shook the reins it would race off galloping.
And indeed I say, though now

37. In the dust with my feet and soul burning,
Glory to He who combined in me

38. The good and evil I have done.
In me is the self-restraint of a dove,

39. And if provoked, the hunger of a tiger.
I saddled my horse for the crises

40. And experienced them, gathering my resolve.
And thanked in severe hardships

41. My faith's resistance to my blasphemy.
Seventy in the battlefields of strife

42. I vowed and fulfilled my vow.
And rival warriors whose weapon

43. Is that I'm not equal to the victorious.
They believe in the chastity of one who greets

44. Corruption exposers with denial.
Like 'vulgarities' taking refuge

45. In their vulgarity, behind what veils!
Enslaved successors inherited

46. Chains of possession and coercion.
And subjugated - for you they are

47. And against you! For a wage.
And an effeminate who was not

48. Counted a chaste or virgin.
Fell to the lowest - and his conscience

49. Filled with filth and immorality.
Like the tail of a scorpion whose

50. Poison flows to the purest it meets.
Expensive like the cheapest can be

51. The wages of the impure.
His praise did not raise my status,

52. His dispraise did not lower my status.
I left him to the knowledgeable

53. Who know him well in Egypt.
And those who saw his claws

54. Like the intelligence pen, investigating.
Burned by what feeds him,

55. Grows fat on theft.
And gamblers on 'luck' - so any

56. Dice roll to them is like the moon.
They envied the youth in a blessing

57. Without fatigue or abundance.
Without any leaf save

58. Leaves of Paradise - ever green.
Were it not for the flutter of his wing

59. His flight would not be recognized.
They lived on an hour for an

60. Hour - and he from an era to an era.
Counting the crawls of reptiles

61. As if they are the elders of Badr.
A world that takes refuge in an oasis

62. Where I found every palace a ruin.

63. Was my crime that I am
An anthem in every place?

64. Or that my poems stroll
As if they are magic spells?

65. My loss is the loss of a nation
And their gain - through my loss.

66. Oh you who resist - and the black
Descending afflictions create then flee.

67. Strange, an idiot whose folly cannot
Be severed, harder than rock or pebbles!

68. How many times did he pray, with his heels
To the wild, with fang and claw.

69. Oh my companion in the farthest oasis
You are my brother and treasure.

70. You lessened the cunning of plotters
Extending in my skin and patience.

71. You made me fear tomorrow
And care for my grave.

72. And you exemplified for me
My father - the envied and dispraised.

73. My master.. your aid is my treasure
And your text my flame and scent.

74. Thanks - and this is a gift
That pleases my joy and gratitude.

75. Indeed, manhood is free
Like the sea rising and falling.

76. Nature's daughter - like dew,
Like the sea, like passing breezes.

77. Like a flower carrying its thorns
With it, and scents of fragrance.

78. It overwhelms the strange angrily
And softens, like the breeze at dawn.

79. How worthless is the world when
Narrowed by the vastness of a free soul!

80. And when the matter of the writer
In it comes to prohibiting and commanding,

81. And to the extent of the good and
Harm in the bitter, what use and harm.

82. No good in the twinkle of stars
When the twinkles of thought fade away.

83. As for the tale of the two dawns
It is the meeting of my soul and magic.

84. The graves of the inspired narrowed
So for every gift, I find a grave.

85. I knew, and I wish I was
Ignorant, for I do not know,

86. Those who carry their heads high
Arrogantly - fruits of small and smaller.

87. And all who wrinkle their brows
More immoral than immorality.

88. Shows chastity, while his Lord
And Master are the waste of manure.

89. An arrow that fattens its throat
On the blood of sacrifices on the day of slaughter.

90. And imagined ascendance
In the fervor of literature - filth!

91. Around me - and I don't know them
As if they are the stars of the Pleiades.

92. Until when darkness crept
With great numbers courting favors.

93. I did not get used to the letter of
A cockroach guiding the steps of inches.

94. Talents faded, more afraid
Than the greatest in the grave of ants.

95. And igniters of resentments
That eat away ribs and bones.

96. If only the specks in the eyes
Of the poisonous gazes were pebbles!

97. Who can save a nation
Taken willingly and by force?

98. From itself, from the commander
In it, and from servants to command,

99. Like the loyal ones, ennobled
In lineage to Mudar and Fihr.

100. They possess their necks
Like the butchers on the day of slaughter.

101. Every Pharaoh in it
Under him the rivers flow.