هاتها واشرب فإن اليوم فصح

وقبيح بالفتى في العيد يصحو

Bring it and drink, for today is Easter;

And shameful for a young man to be sober at the feast.

إن في الدير أباً فذ الندى

ونبيذ ورعابيب وصدح

Indeed, in the monastery is a priest peerless in generosity,

And wine, buxom beauties, and song,

ومسيح كيس كهانه

دأَبهم في الناس إصلاح وصلح

And Christ, whose priests are wise;

Their way among people is reform and reconciliation.

هاتها واشرب فمثلي ماله

يا أَخي عن دكة الخمار ندح

Bring it and drink, for one like me has no

Escape, my brother, from the wine-seller's bench.

أن هذا العمر ليل ماله

يا أَخي في غير إفق الكأس صبح

For this life is a night that has no

Dawn, my brother, save on the cup's horizon.

هاتها واشرب ودع عبود من

شرح متن الأم يستهويه متح

Bring it and drink; leave, Abboud, whoever

Is enthralled by drawing from the commentary on al-Umm's text.

لست صوفياً ولكني إذا

أحضر الذكر فذكري فيه شطح

I am no Sufi, but when I

Attend the remembrance rite, my chant there is ecstatic utterance.

إنها رجس ولكن ربنا

شأنه عفو وإغضاء وصفح

It is an abomination, but our Lord—

His way is forgiveness, forbearance, and pardon.

وبفقه الدن متن نصه

هامش الكأس لمتن الروح شرح

And in the wine-jar's jurisprudence is a text that reads:

'The cup's margin is a commentary on the soul's text.'

فدع الشيخ على منبره

يعظ الناس وينهاهم ويلحو

So leave the sheikh upon his pulpit,

To admonish the people, forbid them, and rebuke them.

قدر اللّه علينا شربها

ليس خطاً قدر اللّه فنمحو

God has decreed that we should drink it;

God's decree is not a line of writing we can erase.

إن في الحمر عن وج غنى

وبزيزاء من الدوحاء روح

Indeed, al-Hummar suffices in place of Wajj,

And in Ziza is a refreshing breath of al-Dawha.

وكما تامك سفح من منى

تام هذا الشيخ في عمان سفح

And just as a slope of Mina captivated you,

A slope in Amman has captivated this sheikh.

وحجازي الهوى أشواقه

أَصبحت أنى نحا الأردن تنحو

And the longings of that lover of Hijaz

Now turn wherever Jordan turns.

ان في بعد الفتى عن موطن

سامه الغوغاء إرهاقاً لربح

Indeed, a young man's departure from a homeland

Whose rabble subjected him to oppression is surely a gain.

حسب من أجياد ليست صرحه

في ظلال المجد من رغدان صرح

For one whose palace is not Ajyad,

A palace of Raghadan in glory's shade suffices.

وبآل التل أهلاً وحمى

زهره ما يعتريه الدهر صوح

And in the house of al-Tall, kin and a sanctuary

Whose bloom never withers through the ages;

وبعثمان وأتراب له

روضة فينانة أنساً ودوح

And in Uthman and his companions,

A garden luxuriant with fellowship and spreading trees.

هاتها واشرب فقومي كاد من

فرط إيقاظي لهم صوتي يبح

Bring it and drink: as for my people, my voice has nearly

Grown hoarse from all my efforts to awaken them.

فأنا يا عوف نشوان أسى

وخماري اليوم آلام وبرح

For I, Awf, am drunk with sorrow,

And my hangover today is pain and torment.

وبقلبي من عشيات الحمى

ذكريات في حناياه تلح

And in my heart, from evenings in the homeland,

Memories persist within its folds.

وجماح الحر هيهات له

إن يثره الضيم إمساك وكبح

And a free man's unbridled spirit is beyond

Restraint or reining in when oppression rouses it.

موطني الأردن لكني به

كلما داويت جرحاً سال جرح

My homeland is Jordan, yet there,

Whenever I tend one wound, another bleeds.

وبنفسي رحلة عن أرضه

عله يشفي من الارهاق نزح

And my soul longs to journey away from its soil;

Perhaps distance will cure me of exhaustion.

كل ما أرجوه لو أن منى

عاثر الجد إذا يرجو تصح

All I hope for—if only the wishes

Of an ill-starred man could come true when he hopes—

أن أرى لي بيت شعر حوله

من شلايا قومك السرحان سرح

Is to see a hair-cloth tent of my own, around it

A grazing herd from the flocks of your people, the Sirhan,

في فلاة ليس للعلج بها

حية تسعى وثعبان يفح

In a wilderness where the foreign brute has no

Crawling snake or hissing serpent.