1. Ribs aching with sorrow,
And an owl lamenting the sunset,

2. Yearning for Damascenes - yet rain clouds
No longer grace their dwellings.

3. Homes - if remembering conjures them
My soul leaps up eager and willing!

4. When will I see my lord al-Muwaffaq strolling
At dawn through those spacious estates?

5. With al-Huwaini walking behind, and ʿUmar
Strutting like a stud in a herd.

6. And whenever my lord looked upon him
He was stunned, and marveled much.

7. Slim pickings to find his equal
Among the people, save al-Ruhbi providing succor.

8. The pretender claiming his wisdom
Taught Hippocrates the art of healing -

9. By my life, he is far baser than any ground beetle,
More deserving of curses and insults!

10. If you were to see the surgeon examining
How the vertebrae fit in the spine,

11. And the passage of rays in the optic nerve
When they flow into the socket,

12. You would find in the lisping of Ibn ʿAwn enough
To distract him from the eloquence of the Arabs.

13. And for Ibn Najl al-Dajaj, his hand spans
The distance from Euphrates to steppe.

14. He leads his steed Raḍwā to ʿAsīb without
Being daunted by ascending the ridge.

15. Yet Abu l-Faḍl, despite his foolishness,
Spends his days striking with a stick.

16. While the copulist Ḥanbali strains away
Splitting fat volumes of books.

17. This while how many the Muʾayyad left
Stained in sticky syrup, shrouded in dust!

18. Had I wished to tell of the Crazed One what is in him
And not refrained out of fear,

19. But his partisans preceded me
In coming to me, which sufficed me.

20. How he caroused by night in the bedclothes
Amidst the vineyards, plundering the buds!

21. On his shoulder a patchwork robe is slung
Like the body armor of Ibn Muktaʿ al-Ḥarbī.

22. While a swarthy man like the crescent moon perched
Upon the bough of a waving, moist tree.

23. ʿAbd al-Laṭīf poured himself out to him - but for that figure
It was only natural he should pour!

24. The prattle of Ibn Rāshid is froth
On the beards of his listeners, like dripping.

25. And Ibn Hilāl - when he coughs before singing
He howls, sounding like a yelping cur.

26. An earful deserving a lashing and blows
To hasten their coming, from him and on him!

27. The pretentious Sufi has a beard
Lopped for the absurd and lies.

28. Like the snake’s whiskers - each time shaved
It grows back, sprouting like plants and grass.

29. Flaws better veiled - he strips them bare
As he strips bare palace girls behind the veil!

30. Never before did we see a king parade
In a convoy of whores,

31. Leaping with lust at adulterers
Like fleas toward a shaggy dog!

32. Had the virtuous one fallen from a rope,
He would have shredded garb and frame.

33. The honorable ʿAbd al-Raḥīm, our master,
Is dipso at deciding court affairs.

34. Those seeing him suppose him
A rat poking its head out of its hole!

35. The sermon of al-Dawlaʿī - how much scandal it brought
Of monstrosities and shocking affairs!

36. He led them in prayer while in a state of impurity,
Would that he had led them sideways in their rows!

37. A sanctimonious display, but in truth
Neither intention nor devotion in his heart.

38. As for the one named after his mother, a nickname
Like his father’s, conferred out of lies.

39. Evil like the horned viper, known
As Ibn Barādiʿ the Fosterer!

40. Looking as though he guaranteed - and his house too -
Intoxication, if it came into the open!

41. And if you ask about Abu l-Durr, then ask
Ibn Salīm, who will inform you of this outrage,

42. With a servant at his gate and, behind the gate,
Younglings greeting him in that expanse.

43. One mounts the other, so you see
This one swoon in the other’s passion,

44. A condition allowed for the slave girls,
Their girdles loosed from behind the curtains,

45. They took pains to conceal their faces, but made no effort
To hide what lay below their navels!

46. About the ʿAsqalānī in his turban
Are signs indicating great foolishness.

47. As if atop his rising crown
A spinning stack of rings, unsteady and shaking!

48. He deceived God in the alms tax with words -
Absurdities found in no books.

49. Two-faced: if you trace his lineage
All of sound mind will be perplexed.

50. The sister, the mother - from a lustful line,
The father, the son - from a line of dogs!

51. When I saw the state of the wall-eyed Excellent One
My eye sockets climbed up my forehead.

52. I said to the bankrupt ones: For shame!