يا رام قومي اصبحينا غير تصريد — Bashar Ibn Burd

O Ram, rise and give us morning wine, without stinting.

Do not be stingy: that miserliness is not like generosity.

O Ram, a brother of mine, in whom I had placed my hopes,

The slanderers drove [him] to her, without sound guidance.

So I spent the night seeking sleep for my eyes, propped on my elbow,

Until morning, yet my sleep was nowhere to be found.

O Ram, ease is neither my way nor my nature,

And the horizons have blazed with proud lords.

I am occupied with matters apart from a drinking companion's pursuits;

I do not turn aside for the delights of lissome singing girls.

And how can I be given drink, reclining on sweet basil,

While war bares her cheeks and neck?

Indeed, by your fortune, my judgment is not scattered

When honor must be defended, nor is my resolve turned back.

I may strip the tyrannical king of his ornaments

On a crowded battlefield, narrow as a sword's edge.

Nor do I drive others from my pool to withhold it;

There is no good in a tribe's watering place that is never visited.

O Ram, I am a man held in honor among my tribe;

I look after my friend and am named among the champions.

My bounty, like rain clouds, is awaited by those who seek it,

And death is feared from my black serpents.

Do not find strange the rancor of enviers I have distressed;

No one builds glory without being envied.

And one whom time had gladdened spoke, though we were afflicted

By its swift course, in the loss of a devoted brother and a child;

When weeping was too late, he wept for those gone before,

Borne to the dust, the middle-aged and the tender young:

Time leaves no branch to anyone who keeps its company;

So cease your weeping for your departed drinking companion.

So I said: grief overtook me for a brother whom

The fates of death carried off first, noble in loyalty and beloved.

He had been close, but time stole away his fellowship,

And time brings weakness even into boulders.

And the loss of the Tigris's neighbor struck me,

And a lord from a company of lords was lost to me.

My affection for both of them was no empty boast,

But pure, like rain-cloud water for a bough.

I had hoped, with those who hoped, for their return,

Until, against my will, they settled in an everlasting abode.

So drink after the deaths of brothers you have lost;

The gate of death is a gate never closed.

Let it suffice you that piety is strength through which one triumphs,

And sin is abasement, not to be equated with sustaining strength.

And wealth is power, so amass its new acquisitions;

And if you lack it, be content to endure reproach.

Base men have indeed likened wealth to their Lord,

And poverty has humbled people after they held lordship.

Some people go forth in high standing through their wealth,

And the needy man is driven off and kept far away.

So acquire wealth with which to build radiance,

Or live in humiliation, far removed and unregarded.

And many a band, in whose breasts lay steeped against me

The venom of black serpents, seething in their threats—

I branded them with rhymes above their eyes,

As al-Mu'aydi brands the necks of camels.

When they see me, they listen silently in their roosts,

As Ibn Nihya fell silent after warbling.

As though they saw in me a lion of fierce battle,

Enraged, or a king with a crown bound upon his head.

O ignorant one, who assails me foolishly,

You have met hardship and gained nothing praiseworthy.

Do not think me like one whose tears flow

From threats, among the wide-eyed, trembling cowards.

Indeed, when war goes forth and does not sit still,

I move at an easy pace and go forth unbroken.

Indeed, the jinn have tested my guards, and I have been tested by

The lions of humankind, confident in their lion-like prowess.

The rhymes hiss in my defense at every sunrise,

As vipers hiss at the tribe's dog and the wolf.