1. The pessimists said, "We did not meet
What Ibn Sahl met from Yazid

2. Al-Mamun's death came upon him when
Yazid came to him from a faraway land

3. So he dismissed his army
And dispersed the legions of soldiers

4. I said to them, "How unlucky are the people
Whose large numbers were destroyed

5. I saw Ibn Al-Mu'aththal, oh 'Amr
With misfortune that was swifter to Sa'eed

6. From it was the death of the nobles of Banu Salim
And from it the ruin of the couriers

7. And it did not alight upon a house and then depart
Without hearing the slapping of cheeks

8. And every praise of a people he said about them
For by its heels, oh my eyes, is decay

9. When a man hears praise from another
He detects from it the smell of carrion

10. If he enumerated those he slanders
They would emit from him the smell of something rotten

11. For might does not prevent misfortune from him
Nor does blame at the gates of iron