عيد بأية حال عدت يا عيد

Eid, in what state have you returned, O Eid? With what has passed, or with some renewal in you?

As for the loved ones, the desert wastes lie between them and me; so would that before you lay a desert, and before that yet another desert.

Had it not been for glory, the lean, swift-striding she-camels and the robust, long-backed mounts would not have crossed these vast tracts for me.

More comforting to lie beside than my own sword were the maidens, tender and bright as the flashing of its blade.

Time has left neither in my heart nor in my liver anything that can be enslaved by a glancing eye or a graceful neck.

O my two cupbearers, is it wine that fills your goblets, or is it sorrow and sleeplessness that you pour?

Am I a stone, that neither this dark wine nor these sweet melodies can stir me?

Whenever I sought the pure, dark-red wine, I found it, but the desire of my soul remained missing.

What have I not met from this world, and the strangest of it all is that I am envied for the very things over which I weep.

I have spent my evenings as a wealthy man rich in treasures yet empty-handed; I am truly rich, while my wealth consists entirely of unfulfilled promises.

I have alighted among liars whose guest is denied both the comfort of hospitality and the permission to depart.

The generosity of true men is shown through their hands, but their generosity is merely of the tongue—may neither they nor their generosity endure.

Death never seizes the soul of any among them save that he holds a branch in his hand to ward off their foul stench.

They are each loose-waisted, slack-bellied, and torn open, counted as neither men nor women.

Every time this wretched slave assassinates or betrays his master, he finds a prepared path waiting for him in Egypt.

The eunuch has become the leader of the lands there; thus the free man is enslaved and the slave is worshipped.

The watchmen of Egypt have fallen asleep over its foxes, so the foxes have grown fat on grapes that never run out.

A slave can never be a true brother to a noble free man, even if he were born wearing the garments of the free.

Never buy a slave unless you bring the stick along with him; truly, slaves are filthy and wretched.

I never thought I would live to see a time when a base dog mistreats me while receiving public praise.

Nor did I imagine that people could sink so low that someone like Abu al-Bayda' could actually exist.

And that this black man with the pierced lip is obeyed by all these cowardly, trembling wretches.

A starving wretch who eats from my provisions yet holds me back, just so people will say he is a patron of great status.

Truly, a man whose life is managed by a pregnant slave-girl is oppressed, hot-eyed, and terrified to his core.

Woe to her as a plotting woman, and woe to her midwife! For such a fate were the tall, strong Mehri camels created.

In such a state, the drinker finds the taste of death sweet; truly, death accompanied by humiliation is like sweet wine.

Who taught this black eunuch any noble deed? Was it his pale-skinned tribesmen or his proud, noble uncles?

Or was it his ear bleeding in the hands of the slave-dealer, or his value when he was tossed aside for a couple of coins?

Of all the scoundrels, this little wretched slave almost deserves an excuse for every act of baseness, for sometimes excuse is sheer refutation.

And that is because the noble, pale-skinned men are entirely incapable of doing good—so how much less capable are these black eunuchs?