1. What does your guest tell his family
Of how the torrent's flow and surge were?

2. Does he say: I crossed the Euphrates but found
No water with it, though its waves were raging,

3. And I climbed up the stairs of loftiness, but
Its cliffs and crevices were too narrow for what I wanted,

4. Yet let my qualities inform you of my flattery,
And the water tells of its container's glass.

5. With me are the gems of poetry and its pearls,
And on me is the crown of speech and its crown.

6. Flowers nurtured in the meadow of calm grow on me,
And its brocade flutters in the club of dew.

7. The excellent poet is a flayed black man,
And from him comes its spittle and mucus.

8. The enmity of poets is an intransigent disease,
Yet overcoming it is easy for the generous man.