1. لما وجدت مكارم الأخلاق

    في الدنيا كلام

    When I found noble qualities of character

    In this world to be mere talk,

  2. ورأيت أن المين والتد

    ليس أوفى بالمرام

    And saw that falsehood and deceit

    Better served one's aims,

  3. حررت نفسي من قيود

    الفضل في عرف الكرام

    I freed myself from the bonds

    Of virtue by the standards of the noble,

  4. وزججتها في زمرة المتصع

    لكين مع الطغام

    And thrust it into the company of vagabonds,

    Alongside the rabble.

  5. وأهبت بالساقي أَن أسرع

    بالسلافة يا غلام

    And called to the cupbearer: “Hurry

    With choice wine, O boy!

  6. وأدر على الندمان حتى

    يثملوا كأس المدام

    And pass among the drinking companions—until

    They grow drunk—the cup of wine.”

  7. فالناس عندهم الفضي

    لة كالرذيلة بالتمام

    For, in people's eyes, virtue

    Is exactly the same as vice.

  8. إن القداسة لو تقي يا

    شيخ من وقع السهام

    Indeed, if holiness could protect, O

    Sheikh, from the arrows' blows,

  9. ما استهدف البيت الحرام

    لما ترى وخلاك ذام

    The Sacred House would not have been a target

    For what you see—and blame would have spared you;

  10. ولما أتاك حديث شعب

    في شعاب منى مضام

    Nor would the tale of a people have reached you

    Oppressed in the ravines of Mina.

  11. فاقصر حديث الفقه

    يا عبود لا تزد الملام

    So cut short your talk of religious law,

    O Abboud, add no more blame.

  12. والحق أضيع من يتيم

    أم مأدبة اللئام

    And justice is more forsaken than an orphan

    Who sought the feast of the ignoble.

  13. فاصفع نهارك بالصيام

    وجنح ليلك بالقيام

    So slap your day with fasting,

    And your night's darkness with prayer;

  14. واذهب ودعني أستضيء

    بنور راقصة الظلام

    And go; leave me to be illumined

    By the light of the dancer of darkness.

  15. هذي خيام الهبر فاحبب

    بالمخيم والخيام

    These are al-Habr's tents—how dear

    Are the encampment and the tents!

  16. سمراء والعينان زرقاوان

    في قد الغلام

    Brown-skinned, and her two eyes blue,

    With the build of a boy.

  17. ما شام طلعتها أَخو

    شغف بها إلا وهام

    No one has beheld her face with

    Passion for her without becoming lost in love.

  18. غنت فذكرني تجاوب

    صوتها رجع الحمام

    She sang, and I was reminded, by the resonance

    Of her voice, of the doves' echoing coo.

  19. وتمايلت فأمال عقلي

    في تثنيه القوام

    And she swayed, and my mind was swayed

    By her figure as it bent.

  20. يا بنت يا من أمرها

    لما تعاوجت استقام

    O girl, O you whose affairs

    Came right when you bent awry,

  21. لولا الرغيف وفقر أهلك

    واحتياجك للطعام

    Were it not for bread and your family's poverty,

    And your need for food,

  22. هل كنت ترضين الحياة

    كذا وفي هذا المقام

    Would you have accepted life

    Like this, and in this station?

  23. يا لقمة الخبز التي

    إشقت بحاجتها الأَنام

    O morsel of bread, which

    Has made humankind wretched through the need for it,

  24. وأذل مطلبها العزيز

    وفت في عضد الهمام

    And whose pursuit has humbled the mighty

    And weakened the arm of the valiant!

  25. تف على بشرية

    أَلقت لمثلك بالزمام

    I spit upon a humanity

    That has surrendered its reins to the likes of you!

  26. هانت فلم تحفظ لغير

    صغائر الدنيا ذمام

    It sank low, and kept faith with nothing but

    The petty things of this world.

  27. آأنت موضوع الحياة

    وتستحق الاحترام

    Are you what life is about,

    And do you deserve respect?