هبني أطيع ملام الكاشحين ولا

أعصى الوشاة ولا أرعى الذي يجب

Suppose I heed the reproaches of spiteful foes and do not

defy the slanderers, nor observe what duty demands:

أكنت أصغي لشعر وزنه خطأ

وقد ترادف فيه اللحن والكذب

would I listen to verse whose meter is faulty,

when grammatical error and falsehood have piled up within it?

فالوزن منكسرٌ والخفض منتصب

واللفظ غث ومعنى اللفظ منقلب

For the meter is broken, and the genitive stands in the accusative;

and the wording is feeble, its meaning turned upside down.

لو كنت تسطيع أخطاء بخامسة

أخطأت لكن عليك الجهد والطلب

If you could make errors in a fifth respect,

you would have erred—but you must labor and strive.

هذه المعاني الكتبخي ارتضاك لها

قل شعرت وكانت قبل تحتلب

Al-Katbakhi deemed you fit for these meanings.

Say, 'I have composed verse'—yet before, they were milked.

هب العروض تساهلنا عليك به

فأي نحوٍ بهذا العقل يحتجب

Suppose we were lenient with you over prosody:

then what grammar lies hidden within this mind?

تطهر الآن من ذا الشعر مغتسلاً

كما تطهر من أدرانه الجنب

Purify yourself now of this poetry by bathing,

as one ritually impure cleanses himself of his stains.