أَرى فَتَيَي دُنياكَ إِن حَرِجَ الفَتى

فَما إِن هُما في مَأثَم حَرِجانِ

I see your two young men, if distress befalls the young man

Yet they are not in distressful guilt

وَكَم مِن رَحيبٍ يُلقِيانِ مُلاءَةً

عَلَيهِ وَضَنكٍ ضَيِّقٍ يَلِجانِ

And how much spaciousness they meet with disdain

And confinement they enter narrow

جَديدانِ لَمّا يَبلَيا بِتَقادُمٍ

وَلا بِأَكُفِّ القَومِ يُنتَسَجانِ

Ever new, not worn by the passage of time

Nor squeezed by the palms of people

إِذا حَزِنَ الأَصحابُ لَم يَحزَنا لَهُم

فَأَنّى بِضِدُِّ الحُزنِ يَبتَهِجانِ

If companions grieve, they do not grieve for them

How then by the opposite of grief would they rejoice?

مُلاحِيَتي قَد زَيَّنَت أَنجُمُ الدُجى

مُلاحِيَةٌ لَم تَجنِها يَدُ جاني

My night conversation has adorned the stars of nightfall

A conversation no hand of a critic has touched

تُعَلِّقُ أُذنَ الدَهرِ قُرطاً وَلَم يَكُن

لِيَخلُجَ وَالقُرطانِ يَختَلِجانِ

It suspends the ear of time with an earring, yet it was not

To stir while the two earrings stir

وَمَن دايَنَ الأَيّامَ فَهيَ مَلِيَّةٌ

عَلى غَيِّها بِاللَيِّ وَالسَلَجانِ

And whoever makes the days his debtor, so they are inclined

To their aberrance by night and twilight

وَسِيّانِ مَلكا مَعشَرٍ في سَناهُما

وَعِلجانِ في الشَعراءِ وَالعَلَجانِ

And they rule a nation in its prime

And heal among the poets and the wounded

رَجاكَ لَعَمري أَيُّها الريمُ قاطِعٌ

رَجائِيَ وَبُعداً لِلَغوِيَّ رَجاني

I hoped, by my life, O reproacher

You would hope for me, and away with the vain hopers

وَآثَرُ عِندي مِن مَديحي تَخَرُّصاً

كَلامُ غَوِيٍّ لامَني وَهَجاني

And I prefer to my eulogy reticence

The words of a wanton, not a praiser or madman

غَدا الحَتفُ لا شَجواً يَخافُ وَلا شَجاً

وَقَبلَكَ أَشجى أُسودي وَشَجاني

Tomorrow the bosom fears no dejection or dejection

And before you my blackness and my wounds hurt most

وَما يَنفَعُ الغِربيبُ وَالضَعفُ واقِعٌ

إِذا كانَ لَونُ الرأسِ غَيرَ هِجانِ

And no use is the foolish and weakness has occurred

If the hair of the head is not dark