1. Drink your wine early, for the early drink is sweetest.
The birds have sung in melodious notes at dawn,

2. As the meadow blooms with radiant flowers,
Giving thanks, the meadow smiles at its fragrance.

3. It surges until its waves become an ocean,
With jewels dancing over it, rising high.

4. The meadow has a carpet woven with pearls.
Has time ever attained the likes of it and its wonders?

5. The stream in it smiles with the charm of intimacy
Where its flowers have frolicked.

6. At night, its stars dance with lights
So we encounter no darkness or its regiments.

7. It's as if dawn were a sword in hand
A sword of light unsheathed in the dark.

8. So rise to melted ruby poured
Into the chalice's smooth surface, outpacing the brilliant dawn.

9. It is as if the sun were in it, glowing,
Though it is only midday and the moon is glowing.

10. A red wine a leg has proffered me, whose moustache
Gleams like lightning traveling at night.

11. In its lip is its likeness—no, it has no equal,
Its eyelash cannot be compared to it.

12. It hands me a sip of this and a taste of that,
Bewitching me with its glances.

13. I know not which of them has intoxicated me.
I’m a man lost of mind, confused of senses.

14. A leg formed in the darkness of wine skins
Has whitened its cheek and blackened its ringlets.

15. The sun’s halo was like bracelets on its wrists
Though dumb are the bracelets.

16. And the sun in its disk when its ring was forged
Sealed itself in it, its beauty never fading.

17. It girded its waist in a pearl,
Like a fleck above a bosom, delightful to behold.

18. Kohl-lined of eye, in a swoon, in passion,
Feminine of lid, languorous of glance.

19. How it blamed me for my sweet love of it!
Woe to me, while I excuse it in ignorance.

20. Had it but tasted it, time would not blame me for it
Nor pretend to oppose it.

21. Would that this dear one had left for us
A place of peace—both of us could approach it!

22. For peace is best, and best of all people
Are those who make peace, of high repute.

23. The brilliant scholar, the shining Lumʿi,
Whose eyes are adorned with the kohl of piety!

24. His manner refined, so his path became refined.
The best of people are those of virtuous souls.

25. One whose deeds reject fracture and defect—
Deeds of integrity have upright sources.

26. Arbiter of rhetoric, essence of eloquence,
By whom diction is graced, its form excellent!

27. Reward through him the able speakers,
For skill is built upon their pulpits.

28. Unique pearl, full moon of the age, unique in oneness,
I thank, like me, the Good in gratitude.

29. Lord of rhyme, excellent in subtle composition
Who composes sweetly in these times as poet?

30. O you whose perfection has the highest ranks,
And beauty the most glorious treasures!

31. In your hand, you arrange the pearls into a necklace,
Or scatter them about, as you so please.

32. You have gifted me a pearl of wondrous poetry,
And the best poetry has jewels gifted.

33. An orphaned daughter of matchless thought,
For the best of things in life are rare.

34. You have never failed me in a time
When your ideas were precious as I recalled them.

35. And do hear what the son of Fathallah has sung to you:
“Drink your wine early, for the early drink is sweetest.”