وَأَكرَهتُ الهِجاءَ عَلى لَئيمٍ

وَأَكرَهتُ الهِجاءَ عَلى لَئيمٍ

فَلَمّا ذاقَهُ لِلُّؤمِ عافَه

فَلَمّا ذاقَهُ لِلُّؤمِ عافَه

And I forced satire upon a base man;

I hated to defame a scoundrel,

Then, when it tasted him, it spurned him for his baseness.

But when he tasted it, the ignoble one avoided it.