لِلَّهِ نَهرٌ سالَ في بَطحاءِ

أَشهى وُروداً مِن لِمى الحَسناءِ

What a river flowed across the broad plain!

Sweeter to visit than the lips of a beauty.

مُتَعَطِّفٌ مِثلَ السِوارِ كَأَنَّهُ

وَالزَهرُ يَكنُفُهُ مَجَرُّ سَماءِ

Curving like a bracelet, as though

the flowers around it were a galaxy in the sky.

قَد رَقَّ حَتّى ظُنَّ قُرصاً مُفرَغاً

مِن فَضَّةٍ في بُردَةٍ خَضراءِ

So delicate it grew, it seemed a disk cast

of silver within a mantle of green.

وَغَدَت تَحُفُّ بِهِ الغُصونُ كَأَنَّها

هُدبٌ يَحُفُّ بِمُقلَةٍ زَرقاءِ

Branches came to encircle it, as though they were

eyelashes surrounding a blue eye.

وَلَطالَما عاطَيتُ فيهِ مُدامَةً

صَفراءَ تَخضِبُ أَيدِيَ النُدَماءِ

How often there I passed around well-aged wine,

red, staining the drinking companions’ hands.

وَالريحُ تَعبَثُ بِالغُصونِ وَقَد جَرى

ذَهَبُ الأَصيلِ عَلى لُجَينِ الماءِ

The wind played with the branches, while there streamed

the gold of evening over the silver of the water.