1. In my youth I had adventures and experiences,
And in love I had words and deeds.

2. People vary in degrees of passion –
They are types, kinds, forms.

3. This one, his vitals were tied to
A cheek, and his tears flowed down his face.

4. That one yearned for a gazelle he watched,
In whom were coldness, weakness, disability.

5. The stars could not turn him from his love
Of rose-cheeked ones, nor make him change.

6. Most lovers' creed is
That for the enamored there are terms.

7. Opinions in love branched out and were confused.
How long they talked and how much they said!

8. I am not partial in my passion to singers
Or beautiful-voiced ones - all are equal.

9. I love maidens and passionate ladies, and whoever
In his form has any weight of beauty.

10. Every valley I see my heart infatuated with,
Alike in my creed are old and young.

11. So I carry no sorrow among lovers
If this one is cold while that one shows favor.

12. I drag the train of praise among them in rapture
My lifetime, and I sport fascinated and swagger.

13. So no blame to me from blamer in love ever,
No, nor did reproach ever reproach me.

14. The envious and evil in his saying,
Said "I was reproached" - but never was I reproached!

15. I am a lion though love's thicket makes me
A cub, with love's people I am a whelp.

16.
How often I held a singing gazelle in my arms

17. Without fearing her protector however awful!
Her coquetries, except for over-brevity, are four:

18. My hand, her curl, her glances, her ankle-ring.
How often I sipped honey from her smile,

19. And how her charm leaned towards me.
It is as if, when she is serious, it is a thousand,

20. And if she is coquettish, it seems a single dal.
She inclines to me at times and again

21. She leans away while the branch is leaning.
In the beauty of her form opposites are joined,

22. Her mouth animates while the batting of her eye slays.
In her blossoming cheek is brilliant sunrise,

23. While night is her tresses, guidance and temptation.
How often I enjoyed a gazelle whose body was luxury.

24. How much property and hopes were lost in her love!
How many eyes asked of him stealthily,

25. And how many eyes questioned about him secretly!
I sang the praises of red-lipped idols,

26. In every lover's heart is their statue.
Long they expended their souls in hopes

27. Of union, but by God they never attained it.

28. How often I enjoyed maidens of beauty and saw
Passion’s gates but then had no means to indulge.

29. How often I murmured their beauty intoxicated with joy
Yet today business distracts me from that.

30. I only praise those whose gifts and wealth
Make kinsmen forgotten by them.

31. Lord of mankind – Shalabi – who ransomed my father
And whose rain of generosity flows copiously.

32. If an aggressor or complainer comes he treats kindly,
Never leaving the abode of life for them.

33. He imprisons the audacious with his gifts
And burdens the aggressive with fetters.

34. Harsh of heart to enemies, frozen against them,
While soft of nature and flowing to the weak.

35. Four walk about him wherever he travels –
Bounty, justice, veneration, and awe.

36. He gives generously as if the money in his hand
Were Jesus son of Mary while stinting is a liar.

37.
How can he who spent the night with the bases of virtue

38. And pillars of prosperity join the stingy?
His gaze loves perusing books,

39. And never wearies for books are milestones.
With lofty ambition for gaining knowledge,

40. With trailing lengths beyond the stars' orbit.
Passionate about his family and relatives,

41. While he disregards the inarticulate.
Infatuated with kissing the cheeks of sciences, so

42. Family and money have not distracted him from that union.
How often he became drunk with the virginal wine

43. Of its first grapes and vintages.
He never weakens for a time or stirs at a time,

44. Shaban and Shawwal are equal to him.
People are only those preoccupied with knowledge,

45. While creation apart from them is like war spoils.
A gathering without him - how many a council

46. Unknots when he arrives and knots without him!
And here, O son of noble fathers, a gift:

47. Beauty has covered her when the mole adorned her.
Delicate of speech – I have composed it for you