1. The sun of comfort rose at night and I sang
As if it was embodied from its light

2. And its procession under the darkness was obscured
Its goblet and rosy cheek were confused

3. So I did not know whether the shining
Goblet was pressed by his palm

4. Or his white hand in its delicacy
By it the ray of his cheek burns

5. A belt of al-Jawza and it is Jupiter
Its belt and its strung pearls

6. The sun of morning wishes if her son was
To it the full moon of the sky is a child

7. If he turned his palm the veil
Would be adorned for the crescent to knot

8. Who can pluck for me a flower from his cheek
And the mole near the temple keeps watch

9. The rosy cheek, nothing made it shy
Except the rosewater from it flows

10. Continuous in his cheek the water of life
The water of life in his cheek flows

11. I hung him bits from the wine of youth
Its branches bent from the thick syrup

12. How often his stature sways
As he repeats the melodies of singing

13. The willow sways and the breeze bends it
Above it a moonlike bird chirps

14. A full moon but in beauty Joseph
For his beauty the full moon of the sky bows

15. And Shawqi the perfect, his passion burns
Nothing extinguishes it but his cooled saliva

16. Beauty is nothing but embers in his cheek
And embers in my heart from me blaze

17. I cool those with a kiss of these
O you who saw fire extinguished by fire

18. Fire but to me it is paradise
Who can make my mouth immortal in it

19. How many nights I stayed up with my boon companion
Till dawn while the slanderers slept

20. Without a tooth I pulled close his waist
Except he bent his stature to stretch

21. Until his delicate waist appears folded
Upon me in its twist

22. My companion enumerates to me the buds
And counts what the liar claims

23. Laugh, oh son of joy, and enjoy
Your fortune from it and gray hair is pitch black

24. And squeeze your instruments in welcoming it
And life to you in it is smooth and plentiful

25. And copulate with comfort, it enlivens you
Its partner in essence when it chirps

26. No mother of beauty birthed his like
And she swore she will not birth more

27. Only a gathering brings together pleasures
Where cups are passed around

28. It is nothing but a sphere for the boon companions
In it the cup revolves and nods off

29. Or a meadow wherein cheeks are picked
By the cupbearer and lips are watered

30. And a stream whose plants are basil
Its breeze perfumed witnesses

31. O seeker of justice, come and gain
For justice is embodied in the country

32. Do you not see al-Fayha how it became
And injustice behind it is shunned

33. This is the sword of the faith among its people
It became while the kingdom by it is held

34. The kings of the time raced in its valley
To a peak none but it ascends

35. So it came racing ahead, nothing touched
Its sublime loftiness except glory

36. So say to one who aspires to its loftiness
Stop lowly, to it there is no ladder

37. For glory is inherited and dew is innate
Praise is earned and highness birthed

38. You see in its porch veiled
From it and no veil but modesty

39. His white fingers served it
Issuing its commands and wetting

40. A sword in the king’s hand erect
In place of its cheeks and arm

41. Two positions neither of both
Can the bare blade substitute

42. And you, where by its name you shared
Do not boast, o engraved one

43. It is set upon the skull of enemies
As way and you set upon and sheathe

44. If its awe inspires you fear
In the breast of the beloved is a lion

45. Most often in its presence no glance aspires
Nor in it does a vetoed one speak

46. Embodied in its person is the soul of prohibition
Upon it the adornments of pride are renewed

47. Another tempts you with his beauty
While from it only a body without cold

48. I turn away from it and to it in dew
The talks of dew relayed and supported

49. Its splendor shared none deserves
And praising them truly for it makes one

50. Oh best of those eulogy visited its abode
For it visited purer than aspired greatness

51. To you it travels with the breeze
Spreading charm and seeking help

52. The wizards of words Babylonians
No mother of speech like it births

53. Rather, every ignorant meaning has become
Wishing it was born from it

54. Do not praise the lute upon any rhyme
Not every lute in matters is praised

55. You are master of the sons of loftiness
And composing it for poetry in you is master