بلدة خاب بمن فيها الرجاء

جمعت شمل لئام سفهاء

A town whose people have dashed all hope

has brought together a company of vile fools.

ففتى كالذئب في شكل امرىء

باسم السن خداعا ورياء

And a youth, like a wolf in human form,

smiling with bared teeth in deceit and hypocrisy,

يظهر الاخلاص للناس وما

في طوايا نفسه غير الجفاء

displays sincerity to people, though there is

nothing in his soul's hidden folds but coldness.

حينما أظهر ما أضمره

ورأى من جانبي شر جزاء

When he revealed what he had concealed

and received from me the harshest recompense,

قد هوى من فوره معتذرا

يلثم الاقدام طورا والحذاء

he fell down at once, apologizing,

kissing feet and shoes in turn.

هو مفطور على الشر قضى

عمره بين خمور ونساء

He is innately disposed to evil; he has spent

his life amid wines and women.

وهو حي ذاهل تحسبه

جثة قد حنطتها القدماء

He is alive but vacant-minded; you would take him for

a corpse embalmed by the ancients.

ومسيخ شاب في اللؤم ولم

يتخل عن رياء وافتراء

And a repulsive wretch, grown gray in baseness, has not

given up hypocrisy and slander.

زوجة حرمها الف طلا

ق ويأتيها بلا أي حياء

A wife made forbidden to him by a thousand divorces—

yet he comes to her without any shame.

صنم جل الذي أنشأه

من عظام ولحوم ودماء

An idol—exalted is He who fashioned him

from bones and flesh and blood.

وكذوب عزما يفخر به

فاستعار الفخر من فخر النساء

And a liar found little to boast of,

so he borrowed his pride from women's pride:

بزنود وقوام وخدود

ثم يمشي بعد هذا الخيلاء

in forearms, figure, and cheeks;

then, after all this, he walks with a swagger.

أيها المفتون في خلقته

وهي ظهر مستطيل ووعاء

O you infatuated with your own form,

though it is only an elongated back and a vessel!

هذه الصخرة لو أنطقها الله

قالت أنت شر الثقلاء

If God made this rock speak,

it would say, 'You are the worst of bores.'

أنا لا أجهل أسرار فتى

يتراءى دائما كالنفساء

I am not ignorant of the secrets of a youth

who always looks like a woman after childbirth.

ودعيٌّ موغل في كبره

حاملا رأسا من العقل خلاء

And a pretender, steeped in his arrogance,

bearing a head empty of reason,

يدعي الجود فيهزي بيننا

بالندى وهو ربيب البخلاء

claims generosity and babbles among us

of bounty, though he is the fosterling of misers.

وعوير يدعي العلم ولكنه

في علمه كالببغاء

And a little one-eyed fellow claims knowledge, but

in his knowledge he is like a parrot.

كل من يلقاه يدري أنه

صاغه الله مثال البلهاء

Everyone who meets him knows that

God fashioned him as the very image of fools.

هل سمعتم أن شخصا مرة

سره من بعض أهليه البغاء

Have you heard that someone once

took delight in prostitution by some of his own kin?

نفر لا خير فيهم خلقوا

من شرور ليس من طين وماء

They are a band with no goodness in them, created

from evils, not from clay and water,

بنفوس طفحت خستها

فهي لا تصلح للناس وطاء

with souls whose baseness has overflowed,

so they are unfit even to be mats beneath people's feet.

ان يكن ربك سواهم فهم

نفر أجبن من تحت السماء

If your Lord has fashioned them, they are

the most cowardly band beneath the sky.

ضاع شرع الله فيما بينهم

مثلما ضاع وفاء واخاء

God's law has been lost among them,

just as loyalty and brotherhood have been lost.

هفوة أخرى هفاها آدم

إن يكن ضمن بنيه هؤلاء

Another lapse that Adam committed,

if these are numbered among his sons.

جمعتهم خدعة لا صحبة

بعضهم من خوف بعض رقباء

Deception brought them together, not friendship;

they keep watch on one another out of fear.

فهمُ الأعدا إذا ما افترقوا

وهمُ عند اللقا كالأصدقاء

So they are enemies when apart,

but when they meet, they are like friends.

إن خلت دنياك من أمثالهم

عاش كل الناس في ظل الصفاء

If your world were free of their like,

all people would live in the shade of serenity.

ظن كل منهمُ في نفسه

أنه المفرد والناس هباء

Each of them supposed within himself

that he was unique, and all others dust,

وتناسوا أنه ليس لهم

قيمة الاصفار في هذا الفضاء

and they chose to forget that they do not have

even the value of zeros in this expanse.