1. If your world were not blameworthy,
God would not have made tongues so fascinated by it.

2. Ahmad al-Khairi would not praise it to excess,
And I would not censure the rose and lily.

3. More ignorant than I is the man who seeks
From me what I am not disposed to grant him.

4. It is right, even if he is but the likeness of a brother in humankind,
That he be reined in or held back.

5. And that his foot be called a hoof
In the duty of metaphor or horse.