1. Shawqi, I call you a poet
If only you were like him

2. He soars to the highest heavens
Making angels his messengers

3. The sky inspires him and he hears
Its inspiration as poetry on earth

4. Poetry that revelation clothed
In the finest rhetorical garb

5. Let him hear Antara and he will
Forget his own beauty for Antara’s

6. Shawqi, whoever is ignorant of him
The literati will not forgive his ignorance

7. If only you were him
And shared his intellect among people

8. Nobility, father of Shawqi, your like
Begets the finest offspring among people

9. Give me, let me drink coffee
To wash away all my worries

10. You try in vain to kill what
The Merciful has made inviolable

11. Black coffee drunk by Ibn Khadir
Curing the sickness in his chest

12. Or give it to me as you see
The sun in the late afternoon leaning west

13. If not for my piety, I am a man
Who would have made the daughter of the vine his sole pursuit

14. Heads would turn to her and ignite
Fires in the hearts of the people

15. I would gain the pleasures of her
Sipping one draft after another

16. Say to Al-Rashid, who has prepared
Celebrations for today’s festivities

17. Long live Al-Rashid, for his heir
Whom he has made glorious among all people