Auspicious stars had risen on this night
When drunkard assaulted drunkard
We passed the time kowtowing to the Devil,
Until the monks sounded the bells at dawn
And [a young adolescent] left, dragging delightful robes
Which I had stained with my iniquitous behavior,
Saying, "O woe!" as tears overcame him,
"You have torn away the [dignity] I had preserved."
I replied, "A lion saw a gazelle and lunged at it;
Such is the variety of Fate’s vicissitudes!"

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Auspicious stars had risen on this night
When drunkard assaulted drunkard
We passed the time kowtowing to the Devil,
Until the monks sounded the bells at dawn
And [a young adolescent] left, dragging delightful robes
Which I had stained with my iniquitous behavior,
Saying, "O woe!" as tears overcame him,
"You have torn away the [dignity] I had preserved."
I replied, "A lion saw a gazelle and lunged at it;
Such is the variety of Fate’s vicissitudes!"" in the context of "As quoted in Abu Nuwas: A Genius of Poetry (2005) by Philip F. Kennedy, cited as: D. iii, 323–5" to mean that wisdom is timeless.