على الرغم بدلت من رغم لاحي — Al Sari Al Raffa

Against my will, I was made to trade my defiance of a reprover,

and my pleasures in radiant faces,

and my drinking wine, blended—

its forbidden part with the lawful and permitted—

and a slender, swaying woman

who visits me early, before morning's hour,

then unveils a face like spring roses,

and smiles to reveal the likeness of daisy blossoms,

for a day when armored men are in earnest,

and know no way of jesting.

The brown spears shower thrusts that day; you see

our stations, their sides reddened by that.

And the armored champion struts amid its twin dust clouds,

with a daring heart and a brazen face,

and a full coat of mail like a serpent's linked scales,

or water when the winds blow,

and a white sword gleaming along its flat,

when the lightning of allotted death goes astray.

So whoever goes about angering his reprovers

and pleasing desire between lute and wine—

I, for my part, have lost the swaying of graceful figures,

and been given the bending of spears in its place.

And I used to watch the lightning of smiling mouths;

now I watch the lightning of sword blades.

And never have I heard the song of iron

without recalling the song of the jeweled sash.

If only my bedfellow on the longest night

knew that I am the bedfellow of weapons.

I keep watch for death in the morning,

and await doom in the evening.

And if I had a means of escape,

I would flee, and my disgrace would matter little to me.

When shall I tread the earth, white

along its sides, or see the sky clear,

so I may clothe the warhorses in rest,

and weary the steeds of merriment in play?

Perhaps nearness will quench some of my anguish

and lessen my inward burning and my thirst.