1. Why are the lips of mankind fruitless,
When ignorance is their proof?

2. If the rest of humanity are fools,
Then you too, without doubt, are ignorant.

3. If you claim to be distinct from them through ignorance,
Not merit, since idleness was your undoing.

4. You shunned the stars, jurisprudence and medicine,
And opposed he who is guided by reason.

5. You have an entry that, whenever you wish,
Allows you into every field as an ignoramus.

6. Long have you hurled curses at the sun when it rose,
For it pained you when it cast its rays.

7. You clung to sophistry and obstinacy when
Sound principles became clear to you.

8. Without the noble science of jurisprudence,
Confusion of the lawful and prohibited would reign.

9. Hippocrates in medicine, Galen in treatment,
And the distinguished chapters on seasons of the year.

10. How you have groped in the darkness seeking
The fragrant herb to wander within you.

11. Then you called me over so I could patch you,
Or depart from you by night weeping.

12. The meaning has reason as its balance,
Where for each meaning there is clear evidence.

13. If you dispute, you are without doubt the subject
While my belly carries your predicate.

14. Grammar too benefits speech,
You are its subject while I am its object.

15. Leave this be, and return to the art of poetry
In whose protection you have trespassed.

16. Then ask me of your appalling solecism
In the meter of "al-khafif", which you have made "ath-thaqil".

17. And your neglect in observing the meter
Again and again while you paid no heed.

18. "Fa'alatun" (once), "mustaf'ilun" (twice), "fa'alatun" (once),
"Fa'alatun" (once), "mustaf'ilun" (twice), "maf'ul" (once).

19. What was the last thing that you added to the meter?
Tell me, o ignorant one.

20. And stride above the length you wish,
While the meter from you is prolonged.

21. You know no meter but the meter of "dimyat",
In whose prosody is the navy.

22. You are, without doubt, in reality a dog
Or a billy-goat who knows not what he says.