1. Oh how I wish I knew, when we parted
If my eyes took delight in your ruin

2. Or if absence protected you, O master
Protecting when few offer protection

3. Say to him, if he does not cease
Consuming my flesh, seeking my bones

4. The master’s feast is laden
It will suffice you with meats instead of my flesh

5. But if you refuse peace, let us determine
For my war is in the sheath of my peace

6. I strike those who strike me unprepared
At times I shoot those who shoot at me

7. So let those who approach me sharply fear me
And let those my arrow misses fear me too

8. I am no oppressor of my brothers
But I prevent any oppression against me

9. My tongue is my sword, guidance my leader
Truth my disputant against any adversary

10. I warn those I notify, so let them beware
And my resolve after that is my resolve

11. So let no fool’s mistake smell my honor
One whose mark is not mine, his scent not my scent

12. Whispering patience, and O Lord
His words in the morning tell my words

13. God has made those who reviled me
Into elders, orphans, though I am no orphan

14. So stroke with the palm of mercy, O Fokh
And pray you attain my mercy

15. For many a despised soul
Became fine, branded by my mark

16. I made him, by my contempt, downfallen
He became with it a lesson made

17. So he became for those who saw him a sign
Either enlightening or blinding the eye

18. And one whose spreading pleased him
My composition left him confused about his own spreading

19. And he went carried upon my words
Submitting, ruled by my governance

20. A flaw in poetry to mention him
Uglier in my poetry than a tear

21. Oh woe to my envious ones, and oh their misery
Who do I see their portion is my portion?

22. Foxes, their ruin makes them covetous
In a castle whose glance makes me deaf

23. I swear by God and His signs
The measly one did not understand my understanding

24. My enemies’ eyes are on their unknowns
My scouts suggest to my suspicions

25. How then would I not know their malice
With the rumors that grow?

26. The lion’s prey is his alone
So let the ignorant beware my ferocity

27. And sometimes the limit of my
Tongue’s lash and my hand’s knowledge checks him

28. I am built by the One who built enduringly
No hand can demolish me

29. And I still deem forgiveness good
Deeming vengeance ugly

30. Resolve is in my vengeance, but I
Prefer kindness over resolve

31. So let Al-Basri say what he wishes
I made good his sweetened speech

32. I made good his words, even if
They moisten the brow or cause blood to flow

33. Let no ignorant one leave it with an insult
Lest his sickness evades my decisive treatment

34. Madness may separate the lunatic from my gathering
And the demon convulse at my stoning

35. And if he survives, he would swear
None pierced more than my stars

36. If not for God’s decree against a people
The ambitious would not hope to devour me

37. I roamed your peripheries, not attacking
And the affliction of Amr, my onslaught secured against it

38. It is not my way to be ignorant, but
Embarrassment may spark my forbearance

39. And know, if you take me lightly, that
One may despise something, yet it grows