غَرَّدَ في غُصْنِهِ الهزارُ

واختالَ في رَوْضِهِ البَهارُ

The thousand sang on its branch,

And the spring gloried in its meadow.

واستوتِ الدورُ والصحاري

لمّا استوى الليلُ والنهار

The houses and the deserts leveled out

When night and day leveled out.

وعاد عُوْدُ العُقارِ رطباً

فاليومَ طابتْ لنا العقار

And the wood of aloes returned wet,

So today aloes were sweet for us.

آخذها لا أخاف فيها

عاراً وهل في العقار عار

I take it without fearing in it

Disgrace - and is there disgrace in aloes?

لؤلؤةٌ حَشْوُها عقيقٌ

من فوقها لؤلؤٌ صغار

A pearl whose stuffing is carnelian,

Above it small pearls.

قرارُ كأسي أبو نواسٍ

للكأسِ في كفِّهِ قَرار

The steadiness of my cup is Abū Nuwās’s -

For the cup in his palm there is steadiness.

نادمتُ منه نديمَ صدقٍ

شيمتُهُ السَّمتُ والوقار

I shared it with a friend of sincerity,

Whose trait was loftiness and dignity.

طُنبورُهُ ما عليه زيرٌ

وزقه ليس فيه قار

His tambour has no patches on it,

And his sack has no holes.

يلهو بعذراء قي ندامي

ما فيهمُ مَنْ له عِذار

He plays with a chaste woman in my session,

There is no one among them who is inhibited.

أمثلةٌ في الزجاجِ منه

حواجبُ القومِ والطِّرار

Examples among the glass because of it -

The people’s eyebrows and twinkling.

منهُ أكاليلهُمْ ومنه

تلك الدراريعُ والصِّدار

From it their wreaths and from it

Those breastplates and armors.

وبينهمْ كلُّ ما هوينا

مما حوى البرُّ والبحار

And between them everything we fancied

Of what the land and sea contained.

فالليثُ والظبيُ حيثُ حلُّوا

والحوتُ والضبُّ حيث ساروا

So the lion and the gazelle wherever they lodged,

The whale and the wolf wherever they stalked.

هاذاك بازٍ وذاك صقرٌ

وتلك صَعْوٌ وذا هَزَار

And there a horse and here a thousand.

Their engraver did not tire of skill -

لم يألُ خُرّاطُهُنَّ حِذْقاً

ما فيه أمْرٌ ولا ائْتِمَار

In it there is no defect and no cheat.

How long we have lived this way already -

كم قد غبرنا كذا زماناً

ما إنْ على وجههِ غُبار

There is no dust on its face!