1. When will you cease leading astray,
Confusing minds, bewildering all?

2. I seek virtue in this land,
Yet virtue here was hopeless.

3. And you almost made it a habit,
Calling the virtuous to vice, to folly.

4. Yet yesterday you feared not the banner's Lord,
Nor stood in awe of the Master of verse.

5. Is it for some fleeting event,
Remedied by the slightest rebuke, you beat the drums,

6. Summon witnesses to the gathering,
Exiling your opponent miles from Egypt,

7. Stabbing a bishop in the nose-
Yet what is a bishop's nose, so very little?

8. You stabbed that proud, dignified, haughty nose,
That thick, ancient, elongated nose.

9. You stabbed the press in its nose,
You stabbed that chaste, decent, noble pavement.

10. You stabbed its pleats in their Lord,
Nor feared thereby George or Michel.

11. My friend, the bishop found healing,
Nor did he thereafter taste Menas' sorrows.

12. You shake the naked blade,
While Menas shakes the naked steel.

13. You lead the way in Baalbek,
While Menas leads the night patrol.

14. With the sword you duel his letters and chapters,
Teaching the blade to rage,

15. Shaming the gazelle to rage.
O bishop's nose, nose of dignity,

16. Fair consolation and fair patience!
My eyes wept blood for your wounds,

17. And that blood it was their duty to pour.
Take their light, if you wish, as a balm,

18. Take their tears, for healing, as a wick.