وَأَنتَ لِسَوداءِ المَعاصِمِ جَعدَةٍ

وَأَنتَ لِسَوداءِ المَعاصِمِ جَعدَةٍ

وَأَقعَسَ مِن نَسلِ الإِماءِ العَوارِك

وَأَقعَسَ مِن نَسلِ الإِماءِ العَوارِك

And you are the son of a curly-haired woman with black wrists,

You belong to the tight-curled-haired maidens of jet black tents

and of a swaybacked man descended from menstruating slave women,

And more bow-legged than slave women’s bastard offspring

تَبيعٍ لِقَومٍ لَم يَكُن مِن صَميمِهِم

تَبيعٍ لِقَومٍ لَم يَكُن مِن صَميمِهِم

وَلَكِنَّهُ مِن نَسلِ آخَرَ هالِك

وَلَكِنَّهُ مِن نَسلِ آخَرَ هالِك

a dependent of a people whose true stock he was not,

Sold off to people who were never really your own

but he was descended from another man, now dead.

But rather, you descend from another damned lineage

أَبوكَ أَبو سَوءٍ وَخالُكَ مِثلُهُ

أَبوكَ أَبو سَوءٍ وَخالُكَ مِثلُهُ

وَهَل تُشبِهَن إِلّا أَباكَ وَخالَك

وَهَل تُشبِهَن إِلّا أَباكَ وَخالَك

Your father is a wicked father, and your maternal uncle is like him;

Your father is despicable and your uncle the same

and whom could you resemble but your father and your maternal uncle?

What could you resemble but your father and uncle?