نديمي أَفِقْ فالفجرُ قد لاح ضوءُهُ

نديمي أَفِقْ فالفجرُ قد لاح ضوءُهُ

كما سَالَ نَهْرٌ أو كما سُلَّ مِقْضَبُ

كما سَالَ نَهْرٌ أو كما سُلَّ مِقْضَبُ

My drinking companion, wake, for dawn’s light has appeared,

My friend, awake, for dawn's light has appeared

like a river flowing, or a keen sword unsheathed.

Like a river that flowed or like a stick that was planed

وذا فلكٌ ساقٍ يديرُ كؤوسَهُ

وذا فلكٌ ساقٍ يديرُ كؤوسَهُ

نجوماً إذا وافَتْ فمَ الغَرْبِ تُشْرَبُ

نجوماً إذا وافَتْ فمَ الغَرْبِ تُشْرَبُ

And this celestial sphere is a cupbearer, passing round its cups—

With a sky turning its cups

stars, drunk when they reach the mouth of the west.

Stars that when they reach the west's mouth are drunk

وقد شاخض زنجيُّ الدُّجى والذي بدا

وقد شاخض زنجيُّ الدُّجى والذي بدا

به من هلالٍ حاجبٌ لاحَ أَشْيَبُ

به من هلالٍ حاجبٌ لاحَ أَشْيَبُ

And night’s black man has grown old, and what has appeared

The darkness's black slave has peered out

upon him as a crescent is an eyebrow gleaming gray.

With the crescent whose eyebrow appeared, graying