1. The necks of the arrogant are destined to be humiliated,
Intended for disgrace, dependent.

2. So don the armor of ignorance over them, but do not
Let a forbearing one forget the number of his ignorant acts.

3. And deal with the ignorant fool according to
What will make the twistedness of his stick straighten out.

4. It is your forbearance that armors you so that ignorance does not
Expose you. Without it, you are stripped naked.

5. And let no sly fox provoke a lion
Unless he sees it, repels it, or drives it away.

6. By God, propriety does not order that
I surrender my stick to all who have bent it.

7. I freed both my slave and stallion together
A servant and one from the clan of Abd.

8. If I do not repay with harm those who
Deviate from righteousness or refuse to be guided,

9. Then say to those whom torment has been hastened,
"If you did not fear the day after tomorrow..."

10. I seek God's forgiveness for my associations with
Wicked brothers, most devoutly ascetic.

11. I lived an age seeing them as a necklace
For the vicissitudes of time, clinging to them.

12. But then I realized they are filth—
When absent, they are not missed.

13. I swore I would continue to hound them
As long as the sea churns up its foam.

14. Woe to him who sleeps away from his duties—
His night will end and he will not have rested.

15. No offender provokes me unless I have
Reaped what he sowed, intentionally planting it.

16. I am no rebel who is hostile without
Reason or whose honor lies in oppression.

17. I made justice through retaliation my peer—
So let rebellion, and then retaliation, ensue.

18. That is how I was created—tough
Until I see my opponent abandon his toughness.

19. Especially one I pardoned, which made
Him exceed bounds and stir up trouble.

20. I said to one who told me, "You presented
To Al-Akhfash what you said, but he did not praise it,"

21. "You fell short with your poetry when you presented it
To one clearly blind when he examines it."

22. He said no poetry and related none, so he is neither
A sly fox nor a lion.

23. If he claims I related it to him, it is as if
An ignorant ledger contained all he believed.

24. Did you intend to honor me by presenting me
To praise him? The disgraced one is he who supported him.

25. Or did you intend to dishonor me by presenting me
To his trickery? He who aimed at him is safe.

26. I recited to him my eloquence so he could witness it,
But blindness kept him from it—he did not witness it.

27. And he spoke words without knowledge,
Lies which his lies did not substantiate.

28. My poetry, when contemplated by
A man of wisdom, understanding, and devotion, worships it.

29. But it is not a discourse that inspires
Him who denies it with a sign against his denial.

30. Nor am I the one who makes the beasts and
Birds understand—Solomon, subduer of jinn.

31. Troubles have not reached me to the rank of one
Whose dogs and monkeys understand him.

32. It is enough that I see a monkey envy me
That God soothe its envious heart.

33. May God not lighten its envy of me
And may God increase its envy further.

34. And may my image, when it appears
To its beholders, blind it and make it bleary.

35. My poetry is not harmed if an ignoramus finds fault with it
Or if he buries it in his mother's bosom as a keepsake.

36. I threatened to terrify her with thunder
If I did not greatly increase her son's thunder.

37. How strange is he—and strangenesses do not
Cease as long as time extends its extension—

38. Does one blind and deaf transgress
When each viper's fang has opened its closure?

39. May God not have mercy on the mother of your Al-Akhfash,
Or quench the thirst of his father's grave.

40. What would he do when he saw a son
Whose blindness was extreme even if he disowned him?

41. The daughter is more deserving of that than him if
The swinging of her clitoris swung its pillar.

42. Ugly is its chooser, its companion,
And its selector—he did not see its guidance.

43. How strange is a deformed sperm
Whose match is not found in the world like one who lost it.

44. Ignorance and vileness cast him out so he is only fit
To cover the palm of one who cups it.

45. He wooed my war despite its defiance
For a promised time which he thought was its appointment.

46. Seeking rain from my clouds, in ignorance
Sometimes, but he could not withstand its cold.

47. Begone, you who the smoke warned but
Who kindled my evil and did not fear its kindling.

48. He faults my thick legs and carves them up
Without a lute, I knew his resentment.

49. A group rectify him and insult me,
And his revenge is in the fingertips that cup.

50. It is his right to be a resounding slap
More humiliating to the slappers than his slap.

51. He is positioned to flaunt his vulgarity
Seeking boys and grandchildren.

52. I swear that if real men were born,
A thousand would be born deserving to birth him.

53. And sons do not come from the womb of
Vulgarity if his intellect restrains its discharge.

54. The worst limb for a man is a paralyzed
One that does not stop being paralyzed.

55. I say, from what I have seen of your Al-Akhfash
Caressing the slave boy's forehead with his hand,

56. What can the blind man babble on insistently about?
They said, "His staff assists him when he makes an effort."

57. A staff of flesh and veins which
His student feels with to gauge its liver—

58. Its home is in the lap of Abu Hassan.
May God not allow his soul to settle in his body.

59. I prostrate from a hoopoe when the
Genitalia of a great stallion emerges—

60. From one who God refused to lavish
Reward on, yet he persists in prostration.

61. He does not desire a well-formed gazelle
Rather, he desires a coarse, heavyset female.

62. He still does not desire delicate morsels since
He was a boy, desiring only breasts.

63. I will let people censure him forever
As long as God does not hear praise from his praise.