أتسألين عن الخمسين ما فعلت

يبلى الشباب و لا تبلى سجاياه

You ask me what I did in my fifties

Do you ask about the fifties, what they have done?

Youthfulness fades but its qualities endure

Youth wastes away, but its essence never fades.

في القلب كنز شباب لا نفاد له

يعطي و يزداد ما ازدادت عطاياه

In the heart there lies a treasure of endless youth

Within the heart lies an inexhaustible treasure of youth,

It gives and increases the more it bestows

It gives, and grows greater the more it bestows.

فما انطوى واحد من زهو صبوته

إلاّ تفجّر ألف في حناياه

None has lost their exuberance

For not a single bloom of its youthful pride folds away,

Except to unleash a thousand more in their bosom

Without a thousand more erupting within its depths.

هل في زواياه من راح الصبا عبق

كلّ الرحيق المندّى في زواياه

Does the scent of youth linger still

Is there a lingering fragrance of youth's wine in its corners?

In all its most fragrant nooks?

All the dew-drenched nectar resides within those corners.

يبقى الشباب نديّا في شمائله

فلم يشب قلبه إن شاب فوداه

Youth remains freshly manifest in its features

Youth remains dewy in his character,

Its heart unfaded though its cheeks grow down

For his heart has not aged, even if his temples have turned gray.

تزيّن الورد ألوانا ليفتننا

أيحلف الورد أنّا ما فتنّاه

Roses don their hues to enchant us

The rose adorned itself in colors to enchant us;

Would roses swear we did not seduce them?

But can the rose swear that we did not enchant it?

صادي الجوانح في مطلول أيكته

فما ارتوى بالندى حتّى قطفناه

My soul is a nightingale in its cage of ribs

Parched to the core in its dew-drenched thicket,

Unpacified even after we plucked it

It was not quenched by the dew until we plucked it.

هذا السلاف أدام الله سكرته

من الشفاه البخيلات اعتصرناه

This wine forever intoxicates with its sweetness

This wine—may God prolong its intoxication—

Pressing it from those reluctant lips

We have pressed it from those stingy lips.

جلّ الذي خلق الدنيا و زيّنها

يالشعر أصفى المصفّى من مزاياه

Exalted is He who created this world and adorned it

Exalted is He who created the world and adorned it;

Oh poetry, purer than pure in all its qualities

O poetry, the purest of the pure among its virtues.

نحن الذين اصطفانا من أحبّته

فلو تدار الطلى كنّا نداماه

We whom He chose among His beloveds

We are the ones He chose from among His beloveds,

Were time to turn back, we would choose it again

So if the wine were passed around, we would be His drinking companions.

و شرّف الشعر لما صاغه ترفا

فكنت نعمته النشوى و معناه

And He honored poetry when articulating it finely

And He honored poetry when He crafted it into elegance,

You were His sublime grace and meaning

And you were its intoxicating blessing and its meaning.

و راح ينشدنا عصماء شفّة

و مقلة و جننّا فاستعدناه

And went reciting to us, perfect of lip

Then he began reciting to us a flawless verse—a lip,

Alluring and maddening, so we regained balance

And an eye—and we went mad, begging him to repeat it.

روحي فدى و ثن ما كان أفقرنا

إليه في عزّة النعمى و أغناه

My soul is sacrifice should poverty befall us

My soul is a sacrifice to an idol; how impoverished we were

Of that bounty and riches He bestowed

Before him, despite our glorious blessings, and how rich he was.

إن كان يذكر أو ينسى فلا سلمت

عيني و لا كبدي إن كنت أنساه

Whether He remembers or forgets, my eyes

Whether he remembers or forgets, may neither my eye

Will not rest, nor my heart, if I forget Him

Nor my very soul be spared if I ever forget him.

يا من سقانا كؤوس الهجر مترعة

بكى بساط الهوى لما طويناه

Oh You who quenched us with cups brimming with estrangement

O you who poured for us brimming cups of abandonment,

The carpet of passion wept when we furled it

The carpet of passion wept when we folded it away.