قم بنا قبل غرة الإصباح — Al Sari Al Raffa

Rise with us before dawn's first gleam,

and before the cupbearers rise with their goblets.

Let us stroll to the delight in which

bodies and souls find well-being:

a house of plenty, where your eye roams

between white necks and white blossoms.

And you meet bodies in robes bestowed by

it—thin and lovely upon their bodies:

trousers of fine silk that fill the

eye with splendor, and a tunic of water.

And if the loincloth of the full, rounded rump

is a foe to your eager gaze,

then delight in the chests and whatever

visible, permitted beauty they contain;

and the cheeks, shifted from the rose

to the safflower tint of apples;

and the girdle's span, as you turn your

gaze through a garden, and the sash's course.

And if it stands empty, enough for you are

the marvelous figures on its walls:

singing girls revealed—the eyes incur no

sin in plundering their love;

and gazelles that met the hounds of Saluq,

then turned back with bleeding wounds;

and armored warriors brandishing white swords,

not to be feared, and brown spears.

Then, once you have polished your body there

with delight's palms, as sword-blades are polished,

you turn from its precincts to the ease of

life—morning joined unbroken to evening—

drinking your fill of morning wine, and deflowering

the gardens' breeze before dawn.

And the day most worthy of revelry is a day

whose rainclouds the south wind has driven away.