ثنى شوقه والمرء يصحو ويسكر — Abn Rumi

ثنى شوقه والمرء يصحو ويسكَرُ

رسومٌ كأخلاق الصحائف دُثَّرُ

His longing was renewed—man sobers and grows drunk—

By weathered traces like the tattered remnants of pages.

لأيدي البلى فيها سطور مبينة

عبارتُها أنْ كلُّ بيت سيُهجَر

The hands of decay have written clear lines upon them,

Whose message is that every house will be deserted.

معاهدُ ربع كنت آلف أهله

تَغيّر بعدي والأمور تغير

The familiar sites of a dwelling whose people I once frequented

Have changed since I left, and all things change.

وقفت بها صحبي فظلّت عِراصُهُ

بدمعي وأنفاسي تُراح وتمطر

I halted my companions there, and its open grounds lay

Rained upon by my tears and wind-swept by my sighs.

سلام على الأيام إذ أنا سِلمها

وإذ أنت مني أيها الربع مُعمر

Peace upon those days when I was at peace with them,

And when you, dwelling, were inhabited by me;

وإذ فيك أمثال الظباء ملاحةً

ونَفْراً عن الفحشاء بل هن أنفر

When within you were women like gazelles in beauty

And in shunning indecency—indeed, they shunned it more.

كُسين لبوس الحسن من كل غادةٍ

لها خُلُقٌ عفٌّ وخَلْق مصوّر

Clothed in beauty's raiment, every tender maiden

Had a chaste character and a finely fashioned form.

تَقَسَّمها نصفان نصف مؤنثٌ

ونصف كخُوط الخيزران مذكر

Two halves divided her: one half feminine,

And one, like a bamboo shoot, masculine.

تَعبّد من شاءت بعين كأنها

وإن سُقيت رِياً من النوم تسهر

She enslaves whomever she wishes with an eye that seems,

Though given its fill of sleep, to remain awake.

إذا هي عيبت عابها أن طرفها

يُريق دماء المسلمين فتُهدر

If she is faulted, her fault is that her glance

Sheds Muslims' blood, which goes unavenged.

سقى اللَّه ريعان الشباب وإن غدا

يُخوّن في إخوانه ويغدّر

May God water youth's first bloom, though it has come

To be called disloyal and treacherous among its companions.

تذكرته والشيب قد حال دونه

فظلت بنات العين مني تَحدر

I remembered it, with gray hair now standing between us,

And the daughters of my eyes kept streaming down.

لياليَ أفنانُ الزمان رطيبةٌ

تميد على أفيائها وتَهصَّرُ

Those nights when time's branches were fresh,

Swaying over their shadows and bending low,

بها ثمر العيش الغرير فيانعٌ

وآخر في أكمامه مُتنظَّرُ

Bearing the fruit of carefree life: some ripe,

And some awaited, still within their husks.

أضاحك آمالاً أماميَ لم تكن

عهوداً يبكِّيهن من يتذكر

I laughed with hopes before me that had not yet become

Past times over which the remembering man weeps.

أنا ابن ذوي التيجان غيرَ مدافعٍ

وهل يُدفَع الصبح الأغر المشهَّر

I am the son of crowned men, beyond dispute:

Can the bright, manifest dawn be denied?

نمْتني ملوك الروم في رأس باذخٍ

من المجد يعلو كل مجد ويقهر

The kings of Rūm raised my lineage to a lofty summit

Of glory, surpassing and overcoming every glory.

فأصبحت في عيصٍ منيع ومنزل

رفيع له فوق السّماكين مظهر

Thus I stand within an unassailable stock and an abode

So high that its outlook rises above the two Simāk stars.

فقل للذي يسمو إليّ مناوئاً

هنالك أسهل إن مرقاك أوعر

Tell whoever climbs toward me as a rival:

Take the level ground there; your ascent is rugged.

قُصارك أن ترقى لعينيك نظرةٌ

إليّ وقد حزتَ المدى حين تفخر

Your utmost is that a glance from your eyes should rise

Toward me: then you have reached your limit when you boast.

وإني ودوني الشمسُ في بيت عزّها

وقابٌ تعاطاه العيون فتقصُر

And I—with the sun beneath me in its glorious abode—

Am a towering height that eyes reach for, then fall short.

فَأَغْضِ على إقذاء عينك صاغراً

فجَدُّك أدنى للسّفال وأصغر

Lower your gaze, humbled, though grit chafes your eye:

Your forebear is nearer baseness and of lesser stature.

ليأْمن سِقاطي في الخطوب ونبوتي

جنان الذي يخشى عليّ ويحذر

Let my stumbling in adversity or my faltering cause no fear

To the heart of him who fears and worries for me.

فما أسدٌ جهم المحيا شتيمه

قُصاقصةٌ ورد السِّبال غضنفر

For no lion, grim and hideous of face,

Thickset, tawny-whiskered, hulking,

مسمّىً بأسماءٍ فمنهن ضيغم

ومنهن ضرغام ومنهن قَسْور

Called by many names, among them Ḍaygham,

And among them Ḍirghām, and among them Qaswar,

له جُنة لا تستعار وشِكّة

هو الدهر في هذي وهذي مكفَّرُ

Possessing armor never borrowed and weapons,

Forever clad in both of these—

إهاب كَتجفاف الكَميّ حصانَهُ

وعُوج كأطراف الشَّبا حين يُفْغَرُ

A hide like a warrior's barding for his horse,

And curved fangs like spearpoints when his jaws gape,

وحُجْنٌ كأنصاف الأهلة لايني

بهن خضاب من دم الجوف أحمرُ

And hooked claws like halves of crescents, never lacking

A red stain from the blood within the body;

تظل له غُلب الأسود خواضعاً

ضوارب بالأذقان حين يزمجر

Before whom thick-necked lions remain submissive,

Striking the ground with their chins when he growls;

له ذَمَرات حين يوعد قِرنهُ

تكاد له صُم السِّلام تَفطَّر

Whose threatening growls, when he menaces his opponent,

Almost make the solid rocks split;

يراه سُراة الليل والدّوُّ دونه

قريباً بأدنى مَسْمع حين يزأر

Whom night travelers, with the desert between them, perceive

As nearby at the faintest hearing when he roars;

يُدير إذا جَن الظلام حِجاجه

شهابَ لظى يَعشَى له المتنوِّر

Who, when darkness falls, rolls his eye,

A meteor of flame dazzling anyone seeking light;

خُبعثنةٌ جأب البضيع كأنه

مكسَّر أجواز العظام مجبّر

Massive, thick-fleshed, as though

His great bones had been broken and set anew;

له كَلْكل رحبُ اللَّبان وكاهل

مُظَاهَر ألباد الرِّحالة أوْبر

With a breast broad across the chest and a shoulder

Shaggy, layered like a saddle's felt pads;

شديد القوى عَبْل الشوى مُؤْجَد القرا

مُلاحِك أطباق الفِقار مضبّر

Mighty in strength, stout-limbed, powerfully backed,

With tightly joined vertebrae and a compact frame;

إذا ما علا متنَ الطريق ببرْكه

حمى ظهره الركبانَ فالسَّفْر أزور

Who, when he mounts the road's middle with his breast,

Bars its surface to riders, so travelers turn aside;

أخو وحدة تُغنِيه عن كل منجِدٍ

له نجدة منها ونصر مؤزر

A solitary creature needing no helper,

Finding in solitude courage and powerful support;

مخوف الشذا يمشي الضّراء لصيده

ويبرز للقرن المُناوي فيُصحِر

Feared for his violence, stalking his prey under cover,

Yet coming into the open to meet a challenging rival—

بِأَرْبى على الأقران مني صولةً

وقد أنذرَ التجريبُ من كان يُنذَر

Is fiercer than I in assaulting opponents;

Experience has warned whoever can heed a warning.

فأنَّى تعاوى لي الثعالب وَيْبَها

وقد رأت الآساد مني تَجْحَر

How, then, do foxes howl at me—woe to them!—

When they have seen lions retreat into their dens before me?

أفي كل حين لا يزال يُهيجني

سفيه له في اللؤم فرع وعنصر

Must there continually provoke me, at every turn,

A fool whose branches and roots alike are in baseness?

عفت ذكرَه آباء سوء أدقَّةٌ

فمات خمولاً غير أن ليس يُقبَرُ

Wretched, insignificant forefathers erased his renown,

And he died in obscurity, except that he is not buried.

يسوم هجائي كي ينوِّه باسمه

وفي السب ذكر للَّئيم ومفخر

He seeks my satire to make his name renowned:

Insults give a vile man remembrance and something to boast of.

أخالد لم أنكر لك النُّكر والخنا

بل العرفُ من أفعال مثلك منكر

Khālid, I never found your wickedness and obscenity strange;

Rather, good conduct from someone like you would be strange.

فدونك لم تسبق بظلمي ظالماً

من الناس بل أنت السُّكَيت المؤخر

Take this: in wronging me you have surpassed no wrongdoer

Among mankind; indeed, you are the last laggard.

هجوتُ مُهجّىً في اللئام مُحسَّداً

له شانئٌ منهم يدَ الدهر أبتر

I have satirized a much-satirized man, envied among the vile,

With a stunted enemy among them who hates him forever.

فدأبك فانبح لستَ أول نابحٍ

ونابحةٍ بدرَ الدجى حين يبهر

Do your usual work, then: bark! You are not the first dog,

Nor bitch, to bark at the full moon when it dazzles the darkness.

أخالد لو كنتَ المكنَّى بخالدٍ

هجوتك لكن أنت أزرى وأحقر

Khālid, if you were the man styled Khālid,

I would satirize you; but you are too contemptible and low.

على أنني هاجيك لا متكلِّفاً

خلا أن تياراً من البحر يزخر

Yet I do satirize you, without straining,

Except as a surge from the sea swells forth.

ولو ملكت كفي على الشعر غربَهُ

لكان له معدىً سواك ومَقْصر

If my hand controlled poetry's impetuous edge,

It would have a destination and stopping place other than you.

ولو كنتُ مختار المُهاجين لم يكن

بسبِّي ومالي كلُّ من أتخير

And were I choosing my opponents in satire, not

Everyone I chose would be insulting me and my wealth.

أخالد ما أغراك بي من عداوةٍ

ولا ترة لولا الشقاء المقدر

Khālid, no enmity incited you against me,

Nor grievance, but your allotted misery.

حداك إليّ الحين حتى استثرتَني

عليك وإني في عريني لَمُخدِر

Doom drove you toward me until you roused me

Against you, though I was resting within my den.

فدونك ما حاولته فبلغتَهُ

وردت ولكن لا إخالك تَصْدر

Take what you attempted and have attained:

You have come to the water, but I doubt you will return.

فقد كنت نِسْياً لا تُحس ولا تُرى

زماناً طويلاً فاصبر الآن تُذكر

You were a forgotten thing, neither felt nor seen,

For a long time; endure being remembered now.

سَتروي رواة الشعر فيك قصائداً

يُغنَّى بها ما نودي اللَّه أكبر

Reciters of poetry will recite poems about you,

Sung as long as 'God is greatest' is proclaimed.

شواردَ لا يثنى المُهيب شريدها

ولا يتناهى غربُها حين يُزجر

Runaway verses whose strays no caller can turn back,

Whose impetuosity knows no bounds when checked.

تهب هبوبَ الريح في كل وجهةٍ

عباديدَ منها مُنْجِدٌ ومغوِّر

They blow like the wind in every direction,

Scattered, some heading to the highlands and some to the lowlands.

سداها مخازيك التي قد علمتَها

ولحمتها منّي الكلام المحبر

Their warp is your disgraces, which you know well;

Their weft is the finely wrought language I supply.

قوافٍ إذا مرّت بسمعك خلتها

ملاطيس تُزجيها مجانيقُ تَخطُرُ

Rhymes which, passing through your hearing, you will think

Are boulders propelled by swaying catapults.

لها هَزَمات في الرؤوس كأنها

ركايا ابن عادٍ غورُها ليس يسبَر

They leave hollows in heads, as though

They were Ibn ʿĀd's wells, their depths unfathomable.

وإن كنتُ لا أهجوك إلا كحالم

يرى ما يراه النائمون فيهجر

Yet I satirize you only like a dreamer

Who sees what sleepers see and talks deliriously.

لأنك معدوم الوجود وإنما

يرينيك ظني ريثما أتدير

For you have no existence; it is only

My conjecture that shows you to me until I reflect.

فإن كنت شيئاً ثابتاً فهباءةٌ

تضاءلُ في عين اليقين وتصغُر

If you are anything real, you are a speck of dust

That dwindles and shrinks in certainty's eye.

أيا ابن التي كانت تحيض من استها

يد الدهر لم يطهر لها قط مِئزر

O son of the woman who menstruated from her arse

Forever, whose loincloth was never once clean!

إذا ما ونى عنها الزناة دعتهُمُ

شقاشق من ارحامها الخضر تَهدِر

Whenever the adulterers slackened with her, they were summoned

By bellowing pouches from her green wombs.

أُحاشي التي تنمي إليها وأنتحي

بها أمَّك الأخرى التي سوف تظهر

I spare the woman to whom you trace your descent, and aim

This at your other mother, who will soon be revealed.

وكم من حَصان شفّها العقم فاغتدت

تَبنَّى ابن أخرى والأمور تُزوَّر

Many a chaste woman, wasted by barrenness, has come

To adopt another woman's son; affairs are falsified.

عساك أفادتك الدعاوةُ نخوةً

فغرّتك مني والجهول مغرَّر

Perhaps your claimed parentage gave you arrogance,

Misleading you about me; the ignorant man is easily deceived.

وكم طامح ذي نخوة قد رددتُه

إلى قيمة دون الذي كان يقْدِر

Many an ambitious, arrogant man have I brought back

To a worth below what he had reckoned.

أرحْتُ عليه حلمَهُ وهْو عازبٌ

وقوَّمت منه درْأهُ وهو أصعَر

I brought his reason home to him when it had strayed,

And straightened his crookedness when he held his cheek askew.

أتتركك السادات من آل صامتٍ

تروح سليماً في الرجال وتَبكُر

Will the lords of the house of Ṣāmit let you

Go safely among men, morning and evening,

تجر عليهم كل يوم جريرةً

فتُقضب أعراض الكرام وتُهبَر

Bringing an offense upon them every day,

So the honor of noble men is hacked and hewn?

وأنت خلي البال مما يَعُرّهُمْ

ولمْ لا ولم يُشتَم بهم لك معشر

You are carefree about the disgrace that befalls them:

Why not? No clan of yours is insulted through them.

ولو كان جِذم القوم جذمك صنتَهُ

لعمري ولكن أنت بالأمر أخبر

If the people's root were your own, you would protect it,

By my life! But you know more about that.

ليكفك من جر المخازي عليهِمُ

مكانك منهم فهْو أخزى وأعور

Let your standing among them suffice instead of dragging

Disgraces upon them: it is more shameful and defective.

كفاهم بظن الناس أنك منهُمُ

وإن لم تكن منهم ففيك مُعيَّرُ

It is enough for them that people think you are one of them;

Even if you are not, you provide a reproach.

شهدتُ لقد ألبستَهم ثوب خزيةٍ

وأحسابُهم من تحت ذلك تزهر

I testify that you have clothed them in a robe of shame,

While their ancestral honors shine beneath it.

ولا غرو إلا أننّي رُعت عنهُمُ

عُرام القوافي وهي نار تسعّر

No wonder—except that I have driven away from them

The unruly violence of rhymes, a blazing fire.

وأنت تَحدّاني ليحمى عليهِمُ

وطيسي وما فيهم لذلك منكر

You spur me on, so that against them may grow hot

My furnace, though no fault in them warrants that.

ولولا نُهى حلمي إذاً لأصبتُهم

بجرمك أو تُنفى مهاناً وتُدحر

Were it not for my judgment's restraint, I would have struck them

For your crime, unless you were expelled, humiliated and driven away.

ولكنني أرعى لهم حقّ مجدهم

وأصفح عنهم إن أساؤوا وأغفر

But I honor the rights of their glory,

Overlook their faults if they offend, and forgive.

وللشتم في أدنى مخازيك مسبح

طويل تُجاريه القوافي فتُحسَر

Even the least of your disgraces gives abuse a course

So long that rhymes racing along it grow exhausted:

بقودك للعُهار عِرسكَ طائعاً

كأنك مصْيور على ذاك مجبر

Your willingly procuring your wife for adulterers,

As though you were driven to it and compelled.

تبيت قرير العين جذلان ضاحكاً

إذا هي باتت بين فحلين تشخُر

You spend the night contented, delighted, laughing,

When she spends it snorting between two stallions.

وقفتَ على فيْش الزناة مبالها

وبيتاً قديماً كان بالفسق يُعمَر

You have dedicated her piss-hole to adulterers' cocks,

And an old house once flourishing with debauchery.

يبيت قرى ضيفانه كلَّ ليلةٍ

بَغِيٌّ وخنزيرٌ وخمرٌ وميسر

Every night its guests are entertained

With a prostitute, a pig, wine, and gambling,

بلا بذل دينارٍ ولا بذل درهمٍ

ينالُك منها والمناكح تمهر

Without the spending of a dinar or a dirham

Reaching you from her, though intercourse commands a bride-price,

سوى أنهم يقرون في استك بعدها

ثمائلَ ما تبقيه منهم وتُسئر

Except that afterward they deposit in your arse

The remnants of what she leaves and spares of them.

فيا سوأتا من شيب رأسك بعدها

إذا ما انتحى فيك الغلام الحزوَّر

Oh, the shame of your gray head after her,

When a burly young man sets upon you!

وأنت تفدِّيه بأمك تارةً

وآونةً يُغشَى عليك فتنخِر

At times you ransom him with your mother,

And at times you faint and grunt.

وقد بل خِصييه بسلحك قابضاً

حِتاراً كعزْلاء المزادة أشتَر

He has wetted his testicles with your shit, gripping

A split rim like a waterskin's spout,

بحيث يراك اللَّه في ملكوته

وخدُّك من ذل المعاصي معفر

Where God sees you within His dominion,

Your cheek dust-covered by the humiliation of sins.

تُناك وعِرس السوء منك بمنظرٍ

تناك فلا تخزى ولا تَتخفَّرُ

You are fucked, and your vile wife, in your sight,

Is fucked, without shame or modesty.

فيا لك من خِدْنَيْ فسوقٍ كلاهما

يباري أخاه بالهنات ويجهر

What a pair of companions in debauchery you are! Each

Competes with the other in vile deeds and proclaims them.

تظل ترى الجُرذان فيك مغلغلاً

وأنت تراها وهي بالفيش تدسَر

You keep seeing a cock driven deep into you,

While you see her rammed with cocks.

فلا أنت منها تستسِرّ بسوءةٍ

ولا هي بالفحشاء منك تَستَّر

You hide no shameful deed from her,

Nor does she conceal her indecency from you.

يكومُكما فحلاكُما وكلاكُما

يخور من الداء العُضال ويجأر

Your two stallions mount you both, and both of you

Bellow and roar from that incurable malady.

فلو متما إذ ذاك ما متّ غيرةً

ولا هي إلا أنها منك أغير

Had you both died then, you would not have died of jealousy,

Nor would she—except that she is more jealous than you.

أتحسب ما تأتي من الخزي خافياً

على الناس لا تُكذَب نهارُك أنهَر

Do you think the disgrace you commit is hidden

From people? Do not be deceived: your daylight is brighter still.

إذا طيِّئٌ عدت بُناة بِنائها

فحاتمها الباني وأنت المتبِّرُ

When Ṭayyiʾ counts the builders of its edifice,

Its Ḥātim is the builder, and you the destroyer.

ولو قبلوا نصحي لهم بقبوله

لواروْك حياً فالثرى لك أسترُ

If they accepted the counsel I offer them,

They would bury you alive: earth would conceal you better.

أيوحشهم فِقدانُ قردٍ وفيهُمُ

بناة المعالي والعديد المجمهَر

Would losing an ape leave them lonely, when among them are

Builders of lofty deeds and a populous host?

لعمري لقد أصبحت للسيف يانعاً

فيا ليت شعري ما الذي بك يُنظَر

By my life, you have ripened for the sword:

Would that I knew why your case is delayed!

لينفكّ عن دار الحياة وعنهُمُ

فتىً منهم حامي المحيّا عزوَّر

Let there depart from life's abode and from their midst

A young man of theirs, unflinching of face and formidable.

فوالله ما يُثني عليك بصالحٍ

لسانٌ ولا يُثنَى بذكراك خِنصر

By God, no tongue praises you for anything

Good, nor is a little finger bent to count your name.

ولا أنت ممن ينقص القومَ فقدُهُ

بل الفاقدوك بعد فقدك أكثر

You are not someone whose loss diminishes his people:

Those who lose you become more numerous after your loss.

أيظلمني يا للبرية خالدٌ

نعم إنه أعلى قروناً وأقهر

Does Khālid wrong me? O mankind!

Yes: his horns are taller, and he is more overbearing.

وأنَّى يناوي من يصاول قرنهُ

بقرن يُظِل الجيش والجيش مُظهر

How can one contend with someone who fights his rival

With a horn shading an army, even at midday?

له شُعَب لا تَعدم الأرض فيئها

ولو أورقت ما أبصر الشمس مبصر

It has branches whose shade the earth never lacks;

Were they to bear leaves, no one would see the sun.

أما والقوافي المحكمات إذا غدت

تبسّل دوني للعدى وتنمَّر

Indeed, by the well-wrought rhymes, when they advance

To face my enemies fiercely, like tigers in my defense!

لقد كان في الشَّوكي عني لخالدٍ

وفي عرسه سُمَّانة السَّوء مزجر

Khālid had in al-Shawkī a deterrent from attacking me,

And in his wife, vile Summāna,

وشِركتهِ الشوكي في بُضع زوجه

تفسّق في جاراتها وتعهَّر

And in his sharing his wife's privates with al-Shawkī,

As she whores and fornicates among her neighbors:

رحيبةِ شق الفرج أكبرُ خلقها

مَبال خبيث الريح أخرق أجحر

A woman with a broad genital slit, whose largest feature

Is a foul-smelling piss-hole, wide and cavernous.

مبال لعمري شقُ للبول كاسمه

إذا شق للإرْبين فرج مطهرُ

A piss-hole, by my life, a slit for piss, true to its name,

Whereas a clean vulva is a slit serving two needs.

على أن فيه مِرفقين بأنه

كطوق الرحا منه تبول وتجعر

Yet it offers two conveniences, since it is

Like a millstone's ring: through it she pisses and shits.

تفاقم مما لا يزال مفجَّجاً

فليس يلاقي مِشفراً منه مشفر

It has widened through being continually spread apart,

So that one lip never meets the other.

لو اطلعت عيناك فيه اطِّلاعةً

رأيت قليباً جولُها يَتهوَّر

If your eyes peered into it once,

You would see a well whose sides were crumbling.

هو البحر إن مثلته قبحَ موردٍ

ولكنه في رحب مُفْضاه أبحُر

It is the sea, if you liken it—what an ugly watering place!—

But in its spacious opening it is many seas.

تناذَره الناجون منه فما يُرى

له راكب إلا الجسور المغرَّر

Those who survive it warn one another against it;

Only the daring, deluded adventurer is seen riding it.

إذا ولدت كانت كمرسلِ فسوةٍ

على رسلهِ انسلت وما كاد يشعر

When she gives birth, she is like someone letting out a fart:

It slips out at its ease, and he scarcely notices.

تبول فترمي بالجنين ولم تجد

مخاضاً ولم يُعتَد لها فيه مَثْبِر

She pisses and expels the fetus, feeling no

Labor pains, with no birthing place prepared for her.

بهاتيكَ يعطى خالد سؤل نفسه

وما هو إلا أفطح الرأس أعجر

Through that woman Khālid is given his heart's desire,

Though he is merely flat-headed and thick-bellied.

إذا هي نيكت نيك أجرة نيكها

ألا ساء ما يُجزَى عليه ويؤجر

When she is fucked, he is fucked as payment for fucking her:

How vile the thing he is paid and rewarded for!

تعيش استُهُ في فضل كَعْثب عِرسه

فقُبِّح من شيخٍ يعول استَه حِرُ

His arse lives off the surplus from his wife's vulva:

Cursed be an old man whose arse is supported by a cunt!

ونازعه الشَّوكي بنتَ فراشه

وجرد أيراً فيه للقول مصدر

Al-Shawkī disputed with him over the daughter of his marriage bed,

And bared a cock that furnished grounds for his claim.

فقال هبوا أن الفراش لخالدٍ

أليس لهذا كان بالليل يُجمَر

He said, 'Grant that the marriage bed belongs to Khālid:

Was it not for this that it was perfumed at night?'

وما أبعد الشوكيّ في ذاك إنهُ

لأولى بدعوى النسل منه وأذكر

Al-Shawkī was not far wrong in that: he

Has a better claim to the offspring and is more manly.

أخالد أعييت الهجاء وفُتَّهُ

فقولي وإن أبلغتُ فيك مُقصِّر

Khālid, you have exhausted satire and surpassed it:

My words, however far I go about you, fall short.

وتاللَّه ما أدري أأسكت خاسئاً

حسيراً برغمي أم أقول فأعذر

By God, I do not know whether to fall silent, abashed,

Exhausted against my will, or speak and make my excuse.

أرى كل لؤمٍ في اللئام فإنما

عُصارتُهُ من عودك السَّوء تُعصر

Every baseness I see among the base is merely

Its essence squeezed from your rotten stock.

لؤُمتَ فلو كنت السماء لأمسكت

حياها وأمسى جوُّها وهو أغبر

You are so miserly that, were you the sky, you would withhold

Its rain, and its air would become dust-laden.

خبُثت فلو شُلِشلت في الماء لم يسغ

لصادٍ وأضحى صفوه وهو أكدر

You are so foul that, were you swished in water, it would not go down

A thirsty throat, and its clarity would turn murky.

نطُفت فلو ماسسْت كعبة مكةٍ

بثوبك حاضت حيضة لا تطهَرُ

You are so defiled that, were you to touch Mecca's Kaaba

With your garment, it would menstruate and never become clean.

ثقُلت فغادرت الكواهل كلها

ثقالاً فظهر الأرض من ذاك أدبر

You are so burdensome that you have left every shoulder

Weighed down, and the earth's back is saddle-sore from it.

قبُحت فجاوزت المدى قبح منظرٍ

ويا حسنَهُ من منظرٍ حين تُخبَر

You are so ugly that your appearance exceeds all bounds,

Yet how handsome that sight seems when your nature is known!

جمعت خلال الشر والعُرِّ كلها

وأنت بها أولى وأحرى وأجدر

You have gathered every quality of evil and disgrace,

And none is more entitled, suited, or deserving of them than you.

تُحالفك السوءاتُ حياً وميتاً

وتُبعث مقروناً بها حين تُحشر

Shameful deeds ally themselves with you, alive and dead;

You will be raised bound to them when you are gathered for judgment.

عددتُ قليلاً من كثير معايبٍ

يقصِّر عنها مجمِل ومفسِّر

I have counted only a few of your many defects,

Which neither summary nor explanation can encompass.

فدونكها شنعاء حدّاء يرتمي

بأمثالها في الأرض مبدىً ومحضر

Take this hideous, piercing poem, whose like is hurled

Across the earth, in desert and town.

تظل مقيماً في محلك خافضاً

وأنت بها في كل فج تُسيَّر

You remain settled in your place, at ease,

While through it you are carried along every mountain pass.

نشرتك من موت الخمول بقدرةٍ

لما هو أدهى لو علمت وأنكر

With my power I raised you from the death of obscurity

To something more grievous and dreadful, if you knew.

وللموت خير لامرئٍ من نشوره

إذا كان للتخليد في النار يُنشر

Death is better for a man than his resurrection

When he is raised to dwell eternally in the Fire.

هجوتك إنذاراً لغيرك حِسبةً

وخطبك لولا ذاك مما يُحقّر

I satirized you as a warning to others, for conscience's sake;

Otherwise, your affair would be beneath consideration.