حمدت ربي على ذمي فأكثره

ممّن وهبت له حبي وإيثاري

I praised my Lord for my reputation though most

Of those I gave my love and preference to

فراح يخترع الأوهام يلفحني

بها ويحسب أني بت في النار

Went about fabricating delusions to burn me

With them and reckoned I was in the fire

أبا العقوق رويدا لم تنل وطرا

سوى اتسامك بالتهريج والعار

O disobedient son, gently, you have gained nothing

But being marked by frivolity and shame

ما شك يوما بإيماني ولا عملي

حر نبيل فعيشي عيش أحرار

Never once did you doubt my faith or deeds

A free noble soul, so my life is that of the free

وهبت عمري لخير الناس قاطبة

فصار عمري المرجى بين أعمار

I gave my life to the best of all people

So my life became the most coveted of all lives

وما عرفت الدنايا كيفما اتسمت

يا من عرفت الدنايا بين فجار

And I never knew the world however it was described

To me by those who knew the world among the wicked

ولا وصفت بغير العقل أبذله

وعظا وفلسفة في جم أشعاري

And I described it with nothing but the intellect I expend

In preaching and philosophy in my poetry

فكيف تعرض عني ثم تشتمني

يا أيها الغر يا منبوذ أغرار

So how can you turn away from me and then insult me

O you shallow fool, you outcast of outcasts

سقراط ما عابه من راح يشتمه

ومن حباه بتلفيق وأوضار

Socrates never blamed those who went and cursed him

And those who slandered him with lies and filth

ومن تفنن في تجريح ذمته

أو نعته بسخافات وأضرار

And those who were creative in slandering his reputation

Or accused him of idiocies and harms

حتى تولى شهيدا صار يخسده

من رافقوه بأدهار وأدهار

Until those who accompanied him for ages

Became martyrs slain by his enemies

لئن تذوقت سما أنت واضعه

فيما طهوت فهذا السم أزهاري

If you have tasted poison that you yourself made

Then that poison is the flowers of my soul

نفسي تحيل الأذى نعمى ويخطئها

ألكائدون ولو لاذوا بأسوار

My soul transforms harm into blessings and faults it

Though plotters take refuge behind ramparts

إني الكفيل بإشهار الذي صنعت

يداك يا صاغرا يعنى بإصغاري

I guarantee the disclosure of what your hands have wrought

O belittler, implying my smallness

فذاك شر عقاب للذي حقرت

جهوده وتهادى بين أشرار

For that is the worst punishment for one who disparaged

My efforts and cavorted among the wicked

ثم ادعى الطهر في ستر لعورته

بئس الطهارة في مجموع أوزار

Then claimed purity in hiding his shame

What faulty purity in a pile of burdens

لا عشت إن كان نبرسي سوى أدبي

ومهجتي وضميري الناصع الواري

By my life, if there was anything for me but my manners

And my brain and my radiant, spotless conscience

أنا المعلم أجيالا مفاخرها

والرائد الحر في سعيي وآثاري

I am the teacher of prideful generations

And the free guide in my efforts and traces

هل جنت الأرض حتى صرت تحرثها

وكنت ملقى عليها بين أحجار

Has the earth gone mad that you've started plowing it

Though you were tossed upon it among rocks?

ألأم هل جننت بإحساني بلا سبب

حتى لدغت بمكار وغدار

Or mother, have you gone mad without cause

So that you bit me with cunning and betrayal?

أصار مثلك حقا من يحاسبني

يا خيبة الدهر في إعزاز ثرثار

One like you is truly who should judge me?

What misfortune of fate to honor a babbler

وضيعة الحق بين العابثين به

كأنه زهرة في رغو تيار

And loss of truth among those playing with it

As if it were a flower in the currents of a river

تحيا العروبة في قولي وفي عملي

وفي مثاليتي العليا لأبرار

Arabism lives in my words, deeds

And my supreme idealism for the virtuous

ولا تعيش بأفاك ومرتزق

وعاجز همة ألوان إتجار

And does not live through your lies and hired guns

And the impotence of commercial hues

لمست من حشراتي كل مرحمة

وما أنست بها من صاحبي الضاري

I have touched every bit of insect from you

And I have not forgotten the harm from my companion