1. O sons of Sammar, do not oppress me,
Lest the poem awaken every buried rage.

2. I have overlooked more than I overlook from you,
And my eyelids were forgiving to your spears.

3. Yet you unleashed the scorpions of evil anew,
Trusting them though they are not to be trusted.

4. Let not my tolerance in ignorance embolden you,
Respect my shyness and my faith.

5. For the flexible blade in the sword is more effective
In the core of great affairs than rigid ones.

6. I am no recluse secluded from evil,
Nor walking its path heedlessly.

7. I avoid evil striving hard, so when
My forbearance is tested, I let it protect me.

8. O sons of Sammar, had you not roused
The bird of my ignorance, it would have settled calmly.

9. O sons of Sammar, never, never
Could you hope for concessions from me.

10. O sons of the rider of war horses habitually
Among the ragged lines heard by the debased.

11. What he found too harsh to hear
Was laughter, until it faded into playfulness.

12. But when separated from it he poured himself into it
And was possessed by it like madness.

13. Never have we heard with any ear
Afflicted before it by the ills of creation.

14. If you reap because of what
You heard from me the contents of your guts,

15. O sons of Sammar you have corrupted the lineage
And destroyed from me the very core.

16. So restrain your cudgels a blink of an eye,
And leave some progeny for the embryo.

17. For the excuse of women and offspring among you,
May God take vengeance on you.

18. O sons of Sammar, you owe me inviolability
And so rule justly over me.

19. I am one of them and they are healers of the disease
Between your bowels, slow in abating.

20. The utmost eloquence of your father
Every sane man describes as nonsense.

21. O sons of Sammar, he had no firmness
Between his jaws, your brother Husnun.

22. Some of his molars bite others
So they are loosened without any firmness.

23. No persistence except the persistence of his saliva
Or the persistence of the mill of death.

24. Do not stop your mill, O son of Sulayman
For the reward in it is not scant.

25. By God, if you dedicated it to the poor
It would not touch them, the price of flour being high.

26. So take the full reward for its endowment, and make it
For you a source of pride in the reign of al-Musta‘in.

27. For at this time, undoubtedly,
You have been taming it for a while.

28. I never thought man would dare until
You were that man, the essence of certainty.

29. O sons of Sammar, you insulted me
With mischief, exceeding bounds foolishly.

30. I have assailed you with enough to restrain any fool,
Turning away from your women, so beware of me.

31. I had cast you with gibes—
Those were no meager gibes cutting to the core.

32. So reproach turned back its rein from you
While rancor extending in length was ahead of me.

33. Those who could be turned back turned back before my steed,
And I rode the arts after arts.

34. Poetry can fling sharp scoffing
If you impose yourselves and provoke me.

35. Below you convoluted lampooning warns,
In eloquent lampooning that clarifies.

36. And if woe gains mastery over you,
My tongue pledges what it has censured.

37. O you unjust in conduct intentionally,
For injustice is the valley of the dragon.

38. By God, if you lose your guidance,
I will make you dwell in abject humiliation.

39. But lampooning refuses or avoids
To match your rabble with my select.

40. So I will repay you measure for measure,
A requital that disgraces the cultivated man.

41. Had you not been ignorant of anything but forbearance,
I would have opposed you with dignified forbearance.

42. But ignorance and foolishness in you
Reside in a place deep in the hearts.

43. It is minimal for you to think
That your speculations humiliate the forbearing.

44. And it weighs heavily on me to match rhymes
Neither with my lute strings nor fine poetry.