يا أَخا الحارِثِ بنِ كَعبِ بنِ عَمرٍ

أَشُهوراً تَصومُ أَم أَيّاما

O brother of Al-Harith bin Ka'b bin 'Umar

Do you fast months or just days?

طالَ هَذا الشَهرُ المُبارَكُ حَتّى

قَد خَشينا بِأَن يَكونَ لِزاما

This blessed month has been so long

That we feared it would be binding

لَقَّبوهُ بِخاتِمٍ حَسنُ الأَم

رِ وَلَو أَنصَفوا لَكانَ لِجاما

They titled it the seal of beauty

Though if they were fair it would be a cup

كَم صَحيحٍ قَدِ اِدَّعى السُقمَ فيهِ

وَعَليلٍ لَيلَهُ يَنيكُ قِياما

How many healthy claimed illness in it

And how many sick, their nights standing in prayer

ظَلَّ في يَومِهِ يُصَلّي قُعوداً

وَسَرى لَيلَهُ يَنيكُ قِياما

Staying sitting to pray by day

And spending their nights standing in devotion

وَلَخَيرٌ مِنَ السَلامَةِ عِندي

عِلَّةٌ لِلفَتى تُحِلُّ الحَراما

And better to me than safety

Is an illness for the youth permitting the unlawful

قَد مَضَت سَبعَةٌ وَعُشرونَ يَوماً

ما نَزورُ اللَذّاتِ إِلّا لِماما

Twenty seven days have passed

Where we only visit pleasures occasionally

ما عَلى الوَردِ لَو أَقامَ عَلَينا

أَو يَرانا مِنَ الصِيامِ صِياما

The roses wouldn't reproach us if they stayed

Or saw us fasting and fasting

جازَنا مُعرِضاً كَأَنّا لَقينا

دونَهُ اللَهوَ أَو شَرِبنا المُداما

They'd pass by us distractedly as though we'd met

Beyond them only frivolity or drinking wine

أَخَذَ اللَهُ مِنكَ ثَأرَ خَلِيٍّ

لَم تَدَعهُ حَتّى غَدا مُستَهاما

God has taken vengeance on you for a friend

You didn't leave him until he became disgraced

أَنتَ أَعدَيتَهُ بِحوبِّ سُعادٍ

وَكَريمُ الأَهواءِ يُعدي الكِراما

You wronged him with the love of Su'ad

And the noble passions wrong even the noble

قَد عَشِقنا كَما عَشِقتَ وَما دُم

تَ وَدُمنا وَالحُبُّ لَو دُمتَ داما

We loved as you loved though our love and your love

Would have remained had you remained faithful

أَفطِروا راشِدينَ إِنّي أَعُدُّ ال

فِطرَ في هَجرِ مَن أُحِبُّ أَثاما

Break your fast prosperously, I consider

Breaking the fast in separation from one I love a sin

وَأَرى الدَهرَ كُلَّهُ رَمَضاناً

واحِداً أَو يَكونَ فِطري غَراما

I see this whole lifetime as one Ramadan

Or my breaking the fast will be lovesickness