1. قَطَعتُ شَبيبَتي وأَضَعتُ عُمري

    وقد أَتعَبتُ في الهَذَيانِ فكري

    I spent my youth and squandered my life,

    and wearied my mind with senseless babbling.

  2. وما لي أجرةٌ فيه ولا لي

    إذا ما متُّ يوما بَعضُ أجر

    I receive no payment for it, nor shall I have,

    when I die someday, even a little reward.

  3. قرأتُ النحوَ تبياناً وفَهماً

    إلى أن كُعتُ منه وضاق صدري

    I studied grammar for clarity and understanding,

    until I recoiled from it and my breast grew tight.

  4. فما استنبَطتُ منه سوى محال

    يُحَال بِه على زَيدٍ وعَمرِو

    So I derived from it nothing but absurdity,

    referred to Zayd and Amr.

  5. فكان النصب فيه عليَّ نصباً

    وكان الرفَّعُ فيه لغير قدري

    So its accusative brought me weariness,

    and its nominative raised a standing other than mine.

  6. وكان الخفضُ فيه جلَّ حَظِّى

    وكان الجزم فيه لقطع ذكري

    Its genitive—its lowering—was most of my lot,

    and its jussive served to cut off mention of me.

  7. وفي علمِ العَرُوض دخلتُ جَهلا

    وعُمتُ بخفَّتي في كلِّ بَحرٍ

    And I entered the science of prosody in ignorance,

    and, light-mindedly, swam in every sea of meter.

  8. فأذكرَني به التفعيلُ بَيتاً

    تضمَّنَ نصفَهُ الشَيخُ المَعَرِّى

    So its metrical patterning reminded me of a verse,

    half of which the shaykh al-Ma'arri included:

  9. مُفَاعَلُّن مُفَاعَلَتُن فعُولن

    حَديثُ خُرَافةٍ يا أمَّ عَمرو

    Mufāʿallun, mufāʿalatun, faʿūlun—

    "A fanciful tale, O Umm Amr!"

  10. وكم يومٍ بِبَيعِ اللَّحمِ عندي

    يُعَدُّ من البَوَارِ بأَلفِ شَهرِ

    And many a day of selling meat at my place

    counts, for lack of trade, as a thousand months.

  11. ولما أن غَدَا لا بَيعَ فيه

    مع الميزان أشبَهَ يَومَ حَشرِ

    And when it came to have no sales,

    with the scales, it resembled the Day of Gathering.

  12. ودُكَّاني جَهَنَّمُ إذ زُبُونيَّ

    زَبَانِيَةٌ بهم تعذيبُ سرِّى

    And my shop is Hell, for my customers

    are Hell's wardens, through whom my inner self is tormented.

  13. وفيها زَفرَةٌ من غير لَحمِ

    وقد وُضِعَت سلاسلُها بنَحري

    And in it is a foul breath, though there is no meat,

    and its chains have been laid upon my throat.

  14. وقد طال العذابُ عليَّ فيها

    لمَا قَدَّمتُ من بَخسِ ووِزرِ

    And my torment in it has lasted long,

    for the short measure and sin I have committed.

  15. فإن لام الغدول أقول دعني

    أنا في ضيعة في وسطِ عُمرِي

    So if the faultfinder blames me, I say, "Leave me alone."

    I am going to waste in the middle of my life.

  16. وعَمِّي قد غَدَا غَمِّي وأمسَى

    يحطُّ ببخلِهِ قدري وقَدرِي

    And my uncle has become my grief, morning and evening,

    lowering, through his stinginess, my standing and my cooking pot.

  17. وإِنَّ الشِّعرَ دون عُلاهُ قَدراً

    ولا سيَما إذا ما كان شعري

    And poetry is beneath his eminence in rank,

    especially when it is my poetry,

  18. لأني ما قرأتُ لهُ صحاحاً

    ولا نحوا على الشيخ ابن بَرِّي

    because I have not read the Sihah for its sake,

    nor grammar under the shaykh Ibn Barri.

  19. وقد شاركتُ في لُغَةٍ ونحو

    بلا علمٍ وشاعَ بذاك ذِكري

    Yet I have dabbled in language and grammar,

    without knowledge, and through that my reputation spread.

  20. وعيشك لستُ أَدري ما طَحَاها

    وقد أَقرَرتُ أني لستُ أدري

    And by your life, I do not understand "what spread it out,"

    and I have admitted that I do not know.

  21. وذا خبري ولو كشَّفت عني

    لصغَّرَهُ بعلم الجهل خُبرى

    And this is my account; if you probed me,

    true knowledge of me would belittle it by exposing my ignorance.

  22. كأني مثلُ بعض الناس لما

    تعلَّم آيتين فصار مُقرِى

    As though I were like someone who, once

    he learned two verses, became a teacher of Quran recitation.