أَعاذِلَ قَد كَبُرتُ عَنِ العِتابِ

وَبانَ الأَطيَبانِ مَعَ الشَبابِ

I've grown too old for reproach,

O Scold, I have grown too old for such reproof,

And the prime time has passed with youth.

And the twin delights have departed along with my youth.

أَعاذِلَ عَنكِ مَعتَبَتي وَلَومي

فَمِثلي لا يُقَرَّعُ بِالعِتابِ

I pardon your blame and reproach of me—

O Scold, keep your censure and your blame from me,

One like me is not chastened with censure.

For one such as I is not chastised by mere rebuke.

أَعاذِلَ لَيسَ إِطراقي لِعَيِّن

وَهَل مِثلي يَكِلُّ عَنِ الجَوابِ

I don't avert my eyes out of coyness,

O Scold, my silence is not born of a stumbling tongue,

Does one like me ever lack an answer?

For does a man like me ever fail to find a reply?

وَلَكِنّي فَتىً أَفنَيتُ عُمري

بِأَطيَبِ ما يَكونُ مِنَ الشَرابِ

Rather I'm a lad who wasted my life

Nay, I am a gallant who has consumed his days

On the sweetest drinking there can be.

In savoring the most exquisite drafts of wine,

وَمَقدودٍ كَقَدِّ السَيفِ رَخصٍ

كَأَنَّ بِخَدِّهِ لَمعُ السَرابِ

With a slender, sword-like waist, cheap

And with a slender lover, cut like a sword's edge, yet tender,

As though his cheek beams a mirage.

As though the shimmer of a mirage plays upon his cheek.

صَفَفتُ عَلى يَدَيهِ ثُمَّ بِتنا

جَميعاً عارِيَينِ مِنَ الثِيابِ

I lined them up before me and took them together,

I set the cups at his hands, and then we passed the night,

All stripped bare of their clothes.

Lying together, stripped bare of every garment.

ثَكَلتُ الظُرفَ وَالآدابَ إِن لَم

أُقِم لي حُجَّةً يَومَ الحِسابِ

May I be bereft of manners and etiquette if I don't

May I be bereaved of wit and refinement if I do not

Establish an argument on Judgment Day.

Raise a compelling argument on the Day of Reckoning.