إلام إلام ظلماً يا حسودُ

وعندكمُ الأماني البيضُ سودُ

Why, why the wrongdoing, O envious one?

While you have the purest wishes that turn evil.

نكثتَ بذمة الإيمان غدراً

حنانَيكَ الحسودُ فما يَسودُ

You have betrayed the covenant of faith perfidiously,

My affection for you, though envied, does not avail.

حللتَ من الكنيسةِ في ذراها

فما لكَ عن محجَّتِها تَحيد

You have slipped out from the church sneakily

Why then do you deviate from its proof?

أما واعدتَها بثبات عهدٍ

فأين العهدُ منكم والوعود

Did you not promise it firm loyalty?

Where then is the loyalty and promise from you?

أما أوصدتَ بابَ الغدر جُهداً

فأين الجُهدُ منكم والوصيد

Did you not adamantly close the door of betrayal?

Where then is the effort and determination from you?

هبوطُ المرء يستثنيه عارٌ

كما استثناه من قبلٍ صعود

The fall of a man can be forgiven but for dishonor,

As can his rise be forgiven before.

قد استسقيتَ منها خيرَ قَطرٍ

وماؤك بعدها ماءٌ صديد

You have sipped the best rainwater from it,

Yet your water after became murky and foul.

فإني لا أرى فيها يهوداً

وقد تُهجَى فهل فيها يهود

I do not see Jews in it, though maligned,

Are there really Jews in it?

علامَ تهانُ منك وأنت منها

محلُّ ابنٍ له حظٌّ سعيد

Why do you slight it when you are from it,

The place of a son who has a blessed fortune?

أترميها بسهم الذمِّ عمداً

تروحُ وأنت فتّاكٌ عميد

Do you deliberately cast the arrows of blame at it?

Going away while being a strong killer?

فإن البغيَ مصرعُه قريبٌ

له في الثأر جبارٌ عنيد

Yet the desires of the unjust are soon foiled,

With an avenger against him, formidable and determined.

أهنت الجزءَ منها فهو كلٌّ

وذم الكلِّ في جزءٍ مزيد

You have disgraced a part of it, yet it is a whole,

And to blame the whole for a part is excessive.

ألا يا سائراً غرباً وشرقاً

شروداً شانَهُ فعلٌ شرود

O you who travels east and west randomly,

Your randomness is an aimless act.

كأنك في مهبِّ الريح غصنٌ

فغصنُك كيفما هبَّت يميد

You are like a branch in the wind,

Swaying wherever the winds blow.

تذمُّ الشرقَ في غربٍ وتهجو

حواشي الغرب والمعنى بعيد

You blame the east among westerners

And malign the fringes of the west, yet the meaning is remote.

تريد ولا تريد وأيَّ خيرٍ

تريدُ وأنت ممن لا يريد

You want and don't want, and what good

Do you want when you are among those who do not want?

إذا كان المرائي مستريباً

فلا يبدو له رأيٌ سديد

When perspectives are doubtful,

No sound opinion appears to him.

ألا يا اَبا بَراقِشَ قد تناهى

بك المكرُ المزيد المستزيد

O Abu Baraqish, you have exceeded

With increased and exaggerated deception.

أتيت مُلوَّناً في كل فنٍّ

ولم يُعجَمْ لما تأتيه عود

You came colored in every art

Yet not refined for what you bring about.

وتمشي مشية السرطان فينا

بإقبالٍ وإدبارٍ ينود

And you walk like a crab, coming and going

With advance and retreat that helps you.

فطوراً بالمشارق مُستكِنٌّ

وطوراً بالمغارب مستفيد

Once orienting to the east, settling down,

Another time to the west, benefiting.

وتذهب بالأمانة بين هذا

وذاك وأنتَ دونَهما طريد

And you take the trust between this one and that

While you, unlike them, are expelled.

ثلبتَ من الكنيسة بعضَ قومٍ

همُ فيها طريفٌ أو تليد

You have pilfered from the church some people

Who are pure and upright in it.

هُمُ فيها البنونَ وأنتَ سِقطٌ

وشتان الثعالبُ والأسود

They are the edifice in it, while you are rubbish,

Far apart are foxes and lions.

إذا كان الدخيلُ بغير أصلٍ

يقيه جفَّ من مجناه عود

When an intruder has no origin to protect him

A rough unleashed wind blows him away.

إذا النخّاس أبصرَه رقيقٌ

ولو سَيداً لقال اَنّي مَسود

When the slave-trader sees him a slave

He says I am charred, even if he were a master.

رأينا قبلَكم قوماً مثالاً

هُمُ في معرض المعنى شهودُ

We have seen before you an exemplary people

Who in the matter of meaning are witnesses.

هجوت الروم والإرنج طرّاً

وتزعمُ أنه فعلٌ حميد

You have maligned the Romans and the Orange savagely

And claim it is a good deed.

قصارى مُنيَتي أني أراكم

على رأيٍ لكم فيه وجود

The utmost of my death wish is to see you

Holding an opinion in which you believe.

تبرأت العدالة من بنيها

كما يتبرأ العهد الجديد

Justice has disavowed its sons

As the new testament has disavowed.

وأضحى الحق مُنسدَّ النواحي

فولَّت عن مناهجه الوفود

And truth has been blocked from all sides

As delegations have turned away from its paths.

وردَّ الخُلفُ وجهَ الحقِّ ظَهراً

ولم يكُ قبلكم عنه رُدود

And wrongdoing has turned the face of truth backwards

With no objections to it before you.

وقد خفقت بنود الجَورِ نصراً

وقدماً أخفقت منه البنود

The clauses of tyranny have fluttered victoriously

With its clauses made to flutter from it.

فهذي ناركم وبها خمودٌ

فكيف إذاً وليس بها خمود

This then is your fire, and in it is extinction,

So how will it be when there is no extinction?

تركت حدودَ آباءٍ كرامٍ

لهم في ذروة الفضلِ الحدود

You have left the boundaries of honorable forefathers,

Who have reached the pinnacle of nobility.

دواعي الكبر حين نَمَت ألَمَّت

بقلبٍ قد تغشاه كُمود

When the causes of arrogance grew, it pained

A heart that had been covered in silence.

فلا تكبُرْ فإن أباك أرضٌ

ولا تفخر فأصل القَزِّ دود

So do not be arrogant, for your father is but dust,

And do not take pride, for the origin of dried wood is worms.

فأرضٌ لا تُرِي عُشباً سباخٌ

وغيثٌ لا يروّيها هُمود

It is worthless earth that does not grow plants,

And rain that does not water it, however much.

وعقلٌ لا يرى العقلاءَ جهلٌ

وفكرٌ غير وقّادٍ بليدُ

And a mind that does not see reason is ignorance,

And a thought without guidance is ineffective.

لقد أرهفتَ يا هذا لساناً

صداه الذمُّ إن صدِئ الحديد

You have made sharp, O you, a tongue

Whose echo is blame, if the iron rusts.

ثلبتَ كنيسةَ اللَه المرَجَّى

بها ملِكٌ سماويٌّ سعيد

You have pilfered God's hoped-for church

In which is a blessed heavenly King.

بزعمك أنها غَشَّت وغُشَّت

كما قد قال كَلْوينُ العنيد

With your claim that it deceived and was deceived

As Calvin the obstinate has said.

فواجِئُ لن يراها أهلُ فضلٍ

وإيمانٍ لهم فيه جدود

I will be amazed if people of merit and faith

Do not see it, whose forefathers had covenants.

فأستحيي بها بين البرايا

كأني بطرسٌ وهيَ الجحود

So I am embarrassed by it among the wilds

As if I were Peter and it were denial.

فهل خلٌّ يبلِّغُني مساءً

إلى من كان لي معه عهود

Does an empty caller convey to me in the evening

To whom I had a pact?

لأنشدَهُ مع السارين بيتاً

له في كل قافيةٍ قصيد

To recite to him, with the walking companions, a poem

That has in every rhyme a composition,

له في كل نظمٍ كلُّ معنىً

كأني حين أُنشدُه لبيد

That has in every meter every meaning

As if, when I recite it to him, it is Labid's.

أتنكر حقَّ قدّيسٍ طهورٍ

له في بِيعَة الأبكار عيد

Do you deny the right of a pure and chaste saint

Who has the feast of first fruits?

له في مَدرَجِ الأبرار سطرٌ

له أحبارُنا أبداً شهود

Who has a line in the register of the righteous,

For whom our rabbis are forever witnesses?

لك البطريقُ شيطانٌ مضلٌّ

ولي القديسُ يوحنّا رشيد

For you is the patriarch Satan the misguided,

And for me Saint John the right-minded.

أتتبع مُبدِعاً أغواك مَكراً

وتترك بِيعةً فيها عَمود

Do you follow an originator who misguided you deceitfully

And leave a church in which is a pillar?

فلا ترج السلامَ بدار شرٍّ

بها منها ملائكةٌ قرود

So do not wish safety upon the abode of evil

In which are grunting angels from it.

هداك اللَه يا من ضل طوعاً

برأيٍ مُبدَعٍ فيه جمود

May God guide you, O one who has strayed willingly

With an invented opinion in which is stagnation.

أليس المبدعون ذوي عنادٍ

وكلٌّ منهمُ باغٍ عنيد

Are not the inventors stubbornly disobedient?

Each of them is a rebel and obstinate.

أطع رأي الخلافة في بنيها

ولا يذهب بك الرأي الجديد

Obey the view of the caliphate regarding its sons,

And do not let the new perspective take you away.

إذا قالت حذامِ فصدِّقوها

فما قالت هو القولُ الوكيد

If it says lies, then believe it,

For what it has said is the conclusive words.

وكُلٌّ عزمُه فيه قصورٌ

وكلٌّ نارُه فيها خمود

Everyone whose resolve is deficient,

And everyone whose fire has died down,

وكلٌّ رأيُه فيه فسادٌ

وكلٌّ عقله فيه سُمود

And everyone whose view contains corruption,

And everyone whose mind has become desolate,

أيا مُلقي الشكوك فلا سلاماً

ولا رَعياً إذا قام الرُقود

O you who casts doubts, no greetings of peace

Or compassion when the anklets are shaking.

بيومٍ لا ترى فيه مجالاً

ووقتٍ لا يكون له محيد

On a day you will not see an escape,

And a time that will have no deviation.

فإعذرني أخيَّ ولا تلمني

فجرحُ الحقِّ مألمُه شديد

So excuse me, my brother, and do not blame me,

For the wound of truth, its pain is severe.

فكنتُ أظنُّ تاجي فوق رأسي

فهبهُ كان لكن لا يفيد

For I thought the crown was above my head,

But it was a delusion and does not avail.

وكنت إخالُ راعينا أميناً

ولكنَّ الأمين له عهود

I thought our shepherd was faithful,

But the faithful one has covenants.

وكنت أعدُّ رأسي لي ودوداً

فلا وأبيك ما نفعَ الودود

And I thought you a loving leader,

But no - by your father - the loving are of no use.

إذا كان الإمام بغير فضلٍ

وإيمانٍ فمحرابي الصدود

If the imam has no merit or faith,

My prayer niche is rejection.

دعوني من محاكمة الأعادي

لهم ربٌّ يَدينهمُ عتيد

Leave me be from judging the enemies,

For them is a Lord who will judge them soon.

كفى الإنسان يوم الدين فِعلاً

له فضلٌ وإيمانٌ وطيد

It is enough for man on judgement day what he has done,

Be it good, faithful and firm.