Abu Nuwas
Ka-shamsi dajni, Ka-dam'i jafni, Ka-khamri 'adni! |
Black night sun, Tear on the eyelid, Paradise wine! |
Ka-lawni warsi, Rabibu Fursi Halifu sijni! |
Saffron yellow, Pesian apple Throwed down to a jail! |
Bi-Baturunja: La-ha tawajja Fa-lam yuthanni. |
He came from a village. With only one blow He broke open the jar. |
wa-qad tasaddat La-na, wa-mallat Hulula danni! |
Just before our faces. In the jar it became Improved by age. |
Ka rihi shihi, Yawma sabuhi Wa ghayma dajni. |
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.