دَع عَنكَ ما جَدّوا بِهِ وَتَبَطَّلِ

وَإِذا مَرَرتَ بِرَبعِ قَصفٍ فَاِنزِلِ

Leave what they have persisted in, and give up

Cast off their seriousness and choose the idle life,

And if you pass by an abode of those who have halted, then halt

And if you pass a house of revelry, alight.

لا تَركَبَنَّ مِنَ الذُنوبِ خَسيسَها

وَاِعمَد إِذا قارَفتَها لِلأَنبَلِ

Do not ride upon the most despicable of sins

Do not ride upon the basest, lowest sins,

And if you commit them, then set out for the highlands

But aim, if you must transgress, for the most noble.

وَخَطيئَةٍ تَغلو عَلى مُستامِها

يَلقاكَ آخِرُ طَعمِها بِالأَوَّلِ

And a sin whose pleasures pass beyond its pain

A sin that proves costly to the one who seeks it,

Its latter taste will meet with the first

Its final taste greeting you just like the first.

لَيسَت مِنَ اللاتي يَقولُ لَها الفَتى

عِندَ التَنَدُّمِ لَيتَني لَم أَفعَلِ

It is not one of those for which the youth would say

It is not of the sort that makes a young man say,

When regretting, "Would that I had not done"

When regret sets in, "Would that I had refrained!"

حَلَّلتُ لا حَرَجاً عَلَيَّ حَرامَها

وَلَرُبَّما وَسَّعتُ غَيرَ مُحَلَّلِ

I made the unlawful lawful, without qualm

I made its forbidden nature lawful, without blame,

And perhaps expanded beyond what was made lawful

And perhaps I broadened bounds that were not free.