1. O readers, have patience with what
You find lengthy of argument and misery

2. Many a truth is hidden in silence and obscured
Between much saying and telling

3. O time, evil to him who does not suffer it
And easy on the evildoer, sworn to heroism

4. You came to us today with a physician
Who treats the healthy and is quite unwell

5. He claimed excellence and intrusiveness alike
And made claims without proof

6. Without proof, there would be no difference
Ever between a scholar and an ignorant

7. He did not distinguish eloquent words
From your babble, coherent and contrived

8. So you see him chatter, murmur and prate
Combining disgrace and baseness

9. He did not base what he claimed
On Suyuti or align with Al-Khalil

10. But he saw all I say as wrong
Without proof or justification

11. All sweet in the mouth of the sick is bitter
And darkness to the blind is like the original

12. The claim has clothed him in a garment
Of disgrace, long trailing hems

13. So perhaps the discerning no longer sees him
Even to blame him for intrusiveness

14. If that is so, let him convey to him
With Abel whatever he wishes of amendment

15. For he is unsound and makes unsound
All I have honored with preference

16. What a measure you laugh at
Every weeping for lost lessons

17. An ignorant man claiming all the arts
Without effort or attainment

18. How does he know Arabic when he cannot distinguish
Between the known and the unknown

19. How does he know calculation when he does not
Know the great from the little

20. How does he know anything when this
Is in the realm of the impossible

21. That is the judgment of God in what He decreed
And He guides to the right path