بادر إلى راعي الصبوح صباحا — العفيف التلمساني

Hasten in the morning to the keeper of the morning draught,

And make all your time joyous.

And pass around the wine that dispels your cares in the gloom,

Until you see a dawn for its darkness.

O seeker of comforts, none attains them

Save one who makes wine gleam in his palms,

Or a lover who has given passion its due,

Whose yearning calls him to it face to face.

Drunk with the rapture of youth, he is like

A branch bending at ease with the east wind.

Or do you not see the wordless doves? Their song

Has begun to speak eloquently of love.

And the garden, clad in the robes of streams, resembles

Robes above which you unsheathe sword blades.

And the wind, with its breaths, seeks out souls

Dead, then revives the spirits within them.

So if, for lightning flashes and scenting them, you are rebuked

By a faultfinder, and you fancy the cup a flash of lightning,

Then lower your wing to the cupbearer, and withdraw from

The faultfinder; in both your states you will find success.

Even if drunkenness brought only parting from

The faultfinder, yours would be union with wine and beauties.

And is it not your sobriety's habit and nature

To gather reproachers and advisers?

So put drunkenness in place of sobriety, and behold

Through your wine, the eyes and goblets.

I am one who traded with ardent love, putting it to the test,

So I found all my trading yielded profits.

And you saw me sing with the rapture of love,

While the seeker of solace gave voice to complaint.

And I saw Layla unveil, then applied the kohl of

Her glances to eyes filled with wounds.

And her light dispelled my darkness, as though

She had bestowed a lamp upon her darkness.

So, when I looked, I saw in her eyelids,

Ailing though they were, sound meanings of beauty.

So I grew drunk, my limbs swaying, filling

The worlds with exuberance from the rapture of union.