1. They freed poetry from the shackles of al-Khalil,
And protected it from subject and object.

2. God bless them! Why do they leave prose
Bound by every heavy shackle?

3. O people, free prose as well
To complete this good deed.

4. Free prose from the rules of grammar
That have exhausted the greatest minds.

5. Free it from the syntax of Zayd and Amr
And the long disputes among grammarians.

6. Free it from prepositions, objects,
Subjects, and predicates.

7. Why are some nouns made marfou’ while others jar?
Why do some verbs complain while others do not?

8. Speak without adhering
To branches or principles of rhetoric.

9. And cast these dictionaries into obscurity,
Or into the Euphrates like the Mongols.

10. And leave these academies to mourn
The loss of their vain members.

11. O you who play with the letter ‘d’, gently!
Little of the Arabs remains.

12. The loss of ‘d’ was an insider’s betrayal,
Far worse than a thousand foreigners.