1. She wept for a young man wasting his strength intentionally,
And said, "Will you not stop mocking fate?"

2. I saw you smiling at a weeping and a frowning one,
Yet you were nothing but patient and composed.

3. So I said, "Let me be generous, for I
Saw my emulation of Imru' al-Qais as more glorious."

4. If you reveal what you heard of its throbbing,
You'd see a lion chained inside the ribs.

5. Don't you recognize a great heart and hear
A roar - that's poetry echoing back and forth?

6. Take it, and bring me a heart like it, a free one,
Otherwise, leave it singular in virtues.

7. Profound and high like a sea and planet -
My heart that showed your love and immortalized it.

8. Charm of form poured onto it from every image,
So it became enslaved and worshipping to it.

9. You opened in the shade of the basin many a lake
I see in the evening - its cheek rippled.

10. Yes, my heart is hovering like a butterfly
Over the garden's flowers seeking rest.

11. From a bud and teeth it closes its eyelids
To a moist flower opened by the dew.

12. And a short-belted virgin - her leg
Bared from it like crystal mixed with jet.

13. When the stallion whinnied, she said to her mother,
"I heard the neigh of the stallion - there it rang out."

14. He came to us today, exciting his steed,
And my heart kept pacing every time he passed.

15. I flirt with her, and innocence keeps vigil between us,
As if we had made the garden our temple.

16. And the goddess of revelry - her wine is her glances -
Braided reeds over the water, wavering.

17. As if two buds split open and drew near each other,
Her breasts almost cleave her cloak.

18. She speaks until I regain her speech,
And smiles until I gain more affection.

19. When I sip my cup, I drink half of it
To remain master of the wine.

20. After my intoxication, how much censure and wine
Showed me the way to pleasures laid out smoothly!

21. So I said to her, "You are stingy, Hattem's daughter,
Be generous with what enlivens hearts and cools."

22. She said with her eyes, her mouth, her palm,
"Come, let's perfume ourselves like flowers at the sitting place."

23. Oh, blessed is a coolness whose fragrance wafts
And blessed is beauty that indicates guidance!

24. With it I gained a treasure, and happily, by my hand,
All that was black became shining white.

25. Congratulations to one who fulfilled youth's rights -
He flirted with a rose and tamed a colt.

26. But woe to one who roamed between the wine and passion
Wasting away his nights like the lost ones.

27. Due to the severity of what he faces, his heart hardened
So that cursed blood does not stir toward good.

28. He says, "Thus passed the nights of my youth
Over my body and heart like a sword and a piercing cold."

29. Oh, how many a night I severed by gambling
And awoke from it losing and searching!

30. With a green velvet I sold my bliss
And slept on a black misery, exiled.

31. I spend my day wretched, regretting,
And I pass my night pale, wakeful.

32. On the gambler's grave I wrote my verse:
"He lived despised and died an unbeliever."

33. So how many times did I gamble for luck and riches
When it's not fitting for the likes of me to gain or be fortunate?

34. I saw people's fortunes move quickly
While my fortune remained the weakest hand.

35. I understood - I see the easy as narrow
And my night as few in stars and the sea turbulent.

36. As a blind man walks, probing the ground with his stick,
Stumbles and becomes frightened, hesitating.

37. Beware the soul's falling into its desires -
For man's misery is to grow accustomed.

38. As for me, truth, merit, and proof
Are companions of a youth whose hand I extended.

39. Were it not for poetry's bride, sad for me,
How many times she made a promise in hardship?

40. And in ardor, how many times I ignored her though she came
To bandage a wound that could not be bandaged?

41. Peace upon the death in which is my rest,
For my life is to die and be interred.

42. Let me sleep in the grave the sleep of the glorious
So this heart settles, or fury subsides.

43. For there is no good in living without my hopes -
I was created to be lured by the further to the furthest.

44. As the daring eagle fell upon the land
And yearned to the highest and soared, ascending.

45. By your life - despair is the worst affliction;
Death is easier than you die and are enshrouded.

46. For death is but the body's rest in soil,
While despair is that you live and freeze.

47. It is despair until man dislikes himself
And bloodies the sky with his palms, threatening.

48. And he blasphemes a shocking blasphemy -
Like the roaring torrent hurling boulders.

49. In his chest, a heart twisted like a wounded snake
Yearning for a cooling bite.

50. In his head, hellfire kindled
With no water to extinguish the blaze.

51. Youths of this age, my nation's sons,
Come, let us treat our recurring malady.

52. We were worn down by what makes death sweet to it
And we perished for memories of our past that we dislike tomorrow.

53. Thus passes our youth in torment
And the young man spends his resolve fruitlessly.

54. When he sought provision from those lands,
Fate told him, "You will not provision."

55. Among strangers, our unity scattered,
So seekers of the sublime became dispersed.

56. Thus fruits ripen before their time
And fall from the branches heedlessly.

57. My great soul wore out its body
As the length of striking wore out and bent a sword.

58. Does a shining mind like a star
That guides the travelling exile in the horizon go dark?

59. And does a heart - its throbbing like pebbles - settle
At a pain that repelled enemies and thwarted them?

60. If this is the fortune of each virtue,
Then it is but a name - do not exert yourself.

61. I wept over the swords when they broke
Though those blades did not make sheaths.

62. And I composed for strings when they snapped
Though they left the heart of virtue extinguished.

63. I love you, O land of Sham - immortalize
For your free sons a glorious memory!