Abu Nuwas




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    Sulafu danni,
    Ka-shamsi dajni,
    Ka-dam'i jafni,
    Ka-khamri 'adni!
    Clear jar wine,
    Black night sun,
    Tear on the eyelid,
    Paradise wine!
    Tabikhu shamsi,
    Ka-lawni warsi,
    Rabibu Fursi
    Halifu sijni!
    Yore under the sun,
    Saffron yellow,
    Pesian apple
    Throwed down to a jail!
    Ra'aytu 'ilja
    Bi-Baturunja:
    La-ha tawajja
    Fa-lam yuthanni.
    I saw a savage.
    He came from a village.
    With only one blow
    He broke open the jar.
    Hatta tabaddat
    wa-qad tasaddat
    La-na, wa-mallat
    Hulula danni!
    Then the wine sprang
    Just before our faces.
    In the jar it became
    Improved by age.
    Fahat bi-rihi
    Ka rihi shihi,
    Yawma sabuhi
    Wa ghayma dajni.
    It smells all over
    Flowering wormwood,
    For us freedrinkers,
    Under darkened sky.

Abu Nuwas, character of One Thousand an One Nights was a friend of caliph Harun er-Rachid. He was a tutor of his son al-Amin and later familiar with him. Because of his limpid and powerful language, he is considered as one of the most inspired arab poet of all the times. Poet of court, he writes panegyrics as well as satires. He is mostly famous for his erotic and bacchic poetry.

These verses from the "Wine Qintet" are wonderfully translated into french by Vincent Mansour Monteil.(Abu Nuwas, le Vin, le Vent, la Vie de Vincent Mansour. Monteil éditions Sinbad 1990)

If you know where to find the arabic text of other poems of Abu Nuwas or the english translation of this one, thank you to share it.

You may also correct my approximate english and specify to me the mistakes and the necessary idiomatic forms.


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