1. وكأسٍ تُعيد العسر يسرا وتجتني

    ثمارَ الغِنى للشَرْب من شجر الفقرِ

    And a cup that turns hardship into ease and gathers

    the fruits of wealth for the drinkers from poverty's trees.

  2. كأنّ بياض الكأس فوق احمرارها

    سماءٌ من الكافور ذُرَّت على جمر

    As though the cup's whiteness above its redness

    were a sky of camphor sprinkled over embers.

  3. إذا احتثَّها الساقي الأغنّ حسبتها

    نجوم الثريّا لُحْنَ في راحة البدر

    When the sweet-voiced cupbearer hastens it along, I imagine it as

    the Pleiades' stars, gleaming in the full moon's palm.

  4. يولِّد فيها المزجُ دُرّاً منضّدا

    كما كُتبت فوق الثرى نُقَطُ القَطْر

    Mixing begets within it pearls arrayed in rows,

    as dots of rain are inscribed upon the soil:

  5. صِغارا وكبرى في الكؤوس كأنها

    على الراح واوات تجمّعن في سطر

    small and large within the cups, as though they were

    wāw letters gathered in a line upon the wine.

  6. صبحتُ بها صحبي وقد رُنْدِج الدُجَى

    بفضَة لألاء الصباح من الفجر

    I served my companions a morning draught of it, while the darkness had been dyed

    with the silver of morning's radiance from the dawn;

  7. وقد زهرتْ بِيض النجوم كأنّها

    على الأفُق الأعلى قلائد من درّ

    and the white stars shone forth, as though they were

    necklaces of pearls upon the uppermost horizon.