خَبِرَ الحَياةَ شُرورَها وَسُرورَها

مَن عاشَ عِدَّةَ أَوَّلِ المُتَقارِبِ

Whoever has known life—its evils and its joys—

has lived the number of the first letter of mutaqārib.

وافى بِذَلِكَ أَربَعينَ فَما لَهُ

عُذرٌ إِذا أَمسى قَليلَ تَجارُبِ

By that reckoning he has reached forty; therefore he has

no excuse if evening finds him scant in experience.

يا ضارِبَ العَودِ البَطيءِ وَظَهرُهُ

لا وِزرَ يَحمِلُهُ كَوِزرِ الضارِبِ

O you who strike the slow old camel, though its back

bears no burden like the burden borne by its striker—

أُرفُق بِهِ فَشَهِدتُ أَنَّكَ ظالِمٌ

في ظالِمينَ أَباعِدٍ وَأَقارِبِ

be gentle with it, for I testify that you are a wrongdoer

among wrongdoers, those distant and those near.

قُل لِلمُدامَةِ وَهيَ ضِدٌّ لِلنُهى

تَنضو لَها أَبَداً سُيوفَ مُحارِبِ

Say to wine, though she is reason’s foe:

Against her you forever draw a warrior’s swords.

لَو كانَ لَم يَحظُركِ غَيرَ أَذيَّةٍ

شَيءٌ لَبِتِّ مُباحَةً لِلشارِبِ

If nothing but the harm a thing can do had barred you,

you would still be lawful for the drinker.

لَكِن حَماكِ العَقلُ وَهوَ مُؤَمَّرٌ

فَاِنأَي وَراءَكِ في التُرابِ التارِبِ

But reason, vested with authority, has barred you;

so keep far away—back with you, into the dust-covered earth.