تَشَبَّهتَ بالأعرابِ أهلِ التعَّجرُفِ

فدلَّ على دَعواكَ قُبحُ التكّلُّفِ

You dressed up as desert Arabs, people of arrogance.

Your pretense revealed the ugliness of your affectation.

لسانٌ عِراقي إذا ما صَرَفتَه

الى لغةِ الأعرابِ لم يَتَصَرَّفِ

An Iraqi tongue, if you tried to bend it

into the Arabs' dialect, would not oblige.

لئن كنتَ للأعرابِ والنحو حافِظاً

لقد كنتَ من قُرّاءِ سُورَةِ يُوسُفِ

Though you've memorized the Arabs and their grammar,

you were one of those who recited Surat Yusuf.