ليحيى بن عبد الله عرس كريمة — Sardar

Yahya ibn Abd Allah has a noble wife,

who reproaches him because God fashioned him base.

He denies no adulterer her slender belly,

nor any sodomite her well-trodden back.

Whichever of her two paths he wishes to travel,

he finds a partner there, sharing it with him.

Were the celestial Bull to bear his horn,

it would tumble from the celestial spheres down to earth.

And whoever has that face as the mirror of his own,

it is no wonder he is displeased evening and morning.

Grim-faced, he leaves the eye sore at his sight,

as though a wall of thornbushes covered him.

Ah, the folly of those who handed over a governorship

to you, even if it yielded mere qirats!

For they appointed as guardian only a little marauding wolf,

and entrusted their goods only to a little deceitful thief.

So do not rejoice in your present authority over them;

for soon you will see lancets in your neck-veins.

You will meet one whose grasp brings pain, who breaks bones,

and cooks flesh thoroughly and scalds skin.

And if you escape, nothing will save you from his assaults

with your life, unless you untie the moneybags.

So prepare for them what you embezzled from others,

and reckon yourself never to have seen Wasit with your own eyes.

And oh, how cooling to the heart, to see

both your palms outstretched on the thoroughfares!