أمّا الشباب فربّما نادمته

ريّان من حبّي و من عبراتي

As for youth, perhaps I regretted it,

As for youth, perhaps I was its drinking companion,

Moistened by my love and my tears,

Quenched by my love and by my tears.

صاحبته عشرين أذنب في الهوى

دلاّ و تغتفر الملاح هناتي

I accompanied it through twenty sins in passion,

I accompanied it for twenty years, sinning in love

Errant and you forgive the sailor's delirium,

With coquetry, while beauties forgave my lapses.

قصرت لياليه و كلّ قصيرة

في الطّيبات عريضة اللّذاّت

Its nights were short and every brief one

Its nights were short, yet every short moment

Was capacious in pleasures and delights,

Among good things is vast in pleasures.

في ذمّة الحدق المراض عهوده

سكرى المنى قدسيّة النّفحات

In custody of the tender, loving eyes were its promises,

Its covenants lie in the custody of languid eyes,

The intoxication of wishes, the sanctity of sighs,

Drunken with wishes, holy in fragrances.

أصبحت لا لعس الشفاه كعهدها

كأسي و لا حدق المها مرآتي

Your lips have ceased to have the sweetness of their pact,

No longer are dark lips, as they once were,

My cup and the eyes of the doe my mirror,

My cup, nor are the eyes of the oryx my mirror.

يا من يلحّ هواي في استعطافها

و تلحّ في ظلمي و في إعناتي

O you who insist my passion plead forgiveness,

O you, whose sympathy my passion persists in seeking,

And you insist on wronging me and denying me,

While you persist in my oppression and distress.

أنكرتني بعد الشباب و ما خبت

نار على شفتيك من قبلاتي

You denied me after youth and passion did not diminish,

You denied me after youth departed, though the fire

A fire on your lips from my kisses,

Of my kisses upon your lips has not faded.

أيّام أرشف من لماك سلافتي

و أعلّ من آهاتك العطرات

Days more noble than the fine wine of my drinking,

Days when I sipped my wine from your lips,

And higher than your scented sighs,

And drank deep from your fragrant sighs.

و أمدّ أشراك الغواية و الهوى

لأثير فيك كوامن الشهوات

And I extended the snares of temptation and passion,

And I laid the snares of seduction and love,

To stir in you the latent desires,

To stir within you hidden desires.

فتثور و هي عنيفة صخّابة

هوجاء بعد رويّة و أناة

So they raged, violent and ferocious,

So they erupt, violent and tumultuous,

Passionate after calm and patience,

Wild and stormy after calm and patience.

هيهات يرجعها إلى اطمئنانها

إلاّ هوى شرس الشمائل عات

Alas! Only a fierce, unruly passion,

Alas! Nothing can restore them to tranquility

Can return it to its tranquility,

Except a love fierce in nature and tyrannical.

و حلفت ثغرك ما تقبّل رشفة

من عابديك أحبّ من رشفاتي

And your mouth swore it would not accept a sip,

And I swore by your mouth that it never accepted a sip

From those who love you more than my sips,

From your worshippers sweeter than my own sips.

و نعم تنكّر لي الشباب و فاتني

ما فات من أيّامه النضرات

And yes, youth denied me and eluded me,

Yes, youth has turned against me, and I have missed

What is gone of its delightful days,

What has passed of its blooming days.

فتقبّلي ذكرى هواي بقيّة

منه ترفّ لماك في نغماتي

So accept the memory of my passion in what remains,

So accept the memory of my passion as a remnant

To let your beauty revel in my melodies.

Of it, fluttering toward your lips in my melodies.