1. O Abu Talha, you generous man, help me
With a loan from your divided fortune

2. Revive my soul that I would sacrifice for you, for I am
Broke, as you know well, completely destitute

3. Or volunteer to lend us some flour
For that, if you do it, your reward will be great

4. You know this, so do not pretend ignorance
Of what God decreed regarding the orphan’s food

5. I have nothing but an earthenware jug and a bowl
And a gilded book like tattoos

6. And a gown I sell for a loaf
Whose tears we have patched with leather

7. And a pillow someone energetic lent me
A blanket for every generous guest

8. And wine that Suhaib sells
That leaves the old man without funds

9. My Lord, it’s solved, for I mentioned my bowl
And my blanket until the stars disappear

10. Every house gets half a loaf
That’s the allotment, known to them

11. It fled from it turning away, so show my house
Though it was a permanent residence, undeteriorating

12. I said “this is the Christians' fast,” so be permitted
Do not disgrace your elders with poison

13. The rat laughed, then we all said
“Is this the truth, every day you fast?”

14. I said “al-Bara’ gave a sermon to the people
With permission while you are amongst us, despicable”

15. They carried their supplies on beetles
And crawling insects, condemned

16. And when a gecko with a gown
Trained after the caravan bells

17. They cut its nose with a rope piece
Oh my people, for its severed nose

18. They set up their catapult around my house
Oh my people, for my demolished home

19. And when in the faded dusk a chameleon
Stood over our home on its feet

20. I said “the house of the locusts is an assembly of truth
It was formerly a known place for your assembly”

21. I said “if not for its two turret towers we would have dug
A dwelling beneath its piled dates”

22. If its two towers meet a spacious place
They will leave us and our group routed

23. The spider nested in the bottom of my shelter
That is from my blessings indeed great

24. If only I had flooded my shelter until
I saw the spider in it swimming

25. Drowning without the days saving him
Except foam over his piled head

26. Putting out his palm calling to a fly
“Save me for I am wronged”

27. It said “Leave me be, for I cannot approach
Wine whose fragrance is perceived by the noble”