أَطِعِ الخَليفَةَ وَاِعصِ ذا عَزفِ

وَتَنَحَّ عَن طَرَبٍ وَعَن قَصفِ

Obey the caliph and disobey the one of meager skill

Obey the Caliph and spurn the musician's call,

And abstain from frivolity and empty chatter

And turn aside from mirth and the revelers' hall.

عَينُ الخَليفَةِ بي مُوَكَّلَةٌ

عَقَدَ الحِذارُ بِطَرفِهِ طَرفي

The caliph's eye is entrusted upon me

For the Caliph’s eye is appointed to watch over me,

Caution has tied its knot with my knot

And caution has tied my gaze to his decree.

صَحَّت عَلانِيَتي لَهُ وَأَرى

دينَ الضَميرِ لَهُ عَلى حَرفِ

My overtness is wholesome for him yet I see

My public deeds appear righteous in his view,

My conscience's religion for him hangs by a thread

While the faith of my conscience hangs on an edge untrue.

فَلَئِن وَعَدتُكَ تَركَها عِدَةً

إِنّي عَلَيكَ لَخائِفٌ خُلفي

So if I promise you to leave it for a while

Though I promised you I would cast the wine aside,

I truly fear for you my treachery

I fear that by my promise I shall not abide.

دارَت فَواقِعُها فَناظِرُهُ

مُتَصَنِّعٌ بِخِلافِ ما يُخفي

Its occurrences turned and its onlooker

When the cups circulated, the drinker’s eye would feign,

Is pretentious of that which he hides within

Displaying the opposite of the secrets his thoughts contain.

وَمُدامَةٍ تَحيا النُفوسُ بِها

جَلَّت مَآثِرُها عَنِ الوَصفِ

And a wine-bearer who enlivens souls with it

And a wine by which the weary souls revive,

Its magnificent traces are beyond description

Whose virtues soar beyond what words can contrive.

قَد عُتِّقَت في دَنِّها حِقَباً

حَتّى إِذا آلَت إِلى النِصفِ

Emancipated in its lowliness for eras

It was aged within its vessel for eras past,

Until it came halfway

Until it dwindled to half its measure at last.

سَلَبوا قِناعَ الطينِ عَن رَمَقٍ

حَيِّ الحَياةِ مُشارِفُ الحَتفِ

They stripped the mask of clay from a fading life

They stripped the clay mask from a spirit lingering there,

The threshold of death, the living's environ

Alive with life, yet of death's brink aware.

فَتَنَفَّسَت في البَيتِ إِذ مُزِجَت

كَتَنَفُّسِ الرَيحانِ في الأَنفِ

So it breathed in the abode when blended

It breathed through the house the moment it was poured,

Like the breathing of basil in the nostril

Like the breath of sweet basil, by the senses adored.

مِن كَفِّ ساقِيَةٍ مُقَرطَقَةٍ

ناهيكَ مِن حُسنٍ وَمِن ظُرفِ

From the palm of a large-handled pitcher

From the hand of a tunic-clad cupbearer, fair and bright,

Not to mention its beauty and its grace

A wonder of beauty and charm to the sight.

نَظَرَت بِعَينَي جُؤذَرٍ خَرِقٍ

وَتَلَفَّتَت بِسَوالِفِ الخِشفِ

It looked with the eyes of a sleepy drunk

She gazed with the eyes of a wild calf, wide and shy,

And it glanced with the tales of the protective veil

And turned with a young gazelle’s grace as she passed by.

قالَت وَقَد جَعَلَت تَمايَلُ لي

كَتَمايُلِ الماشي عَلى الدَفِّ

It said, and it began to sway to and fro for me

She spoke, while swaying her body towards my side,

Like the swaying of a walker on the tambourine

Like the rhythmic sway of a walker's gentle stride.

وَجهي إِذا أَقبَلتُ يَشفَعُ لي

وَعَذابُ قَلبِكَ حُسنُ ما خَلفي

When I come face-forward my face intercedes for me

"My face," she said, "is my advocate when I appear,"

And the torment of your heart is the beauty of what's behind me

"But your heart's torment is the beauty of my rear."