عُبّادُ "أنْظِمَةٍ" ما عدّهم عَدَدُ
في كُلِّ نازِلَةٍ خَرّوا لَها سَجَدوا
Worshippers of “regimes”—what number could ever count them?
At every calamity, they fall prostrate before it.
تُبَّاعُ مَنْ رجَحَتْ بالسُّحت كفَّتُهُمْ
أضْحوا لَهُمْ عَسَسًا في بَغيهِمْ مَرَدوا
Followers of those whose scale-pan grew heavy with ill-gotten gain,
They became their night watchmen, hardened in aggression.
صُناعُ فَبركَةٍ أبْواقُ من بَطَشوا
قُلوبُهُم حَطبٌ بالفُجْرِ تَتّقِدُ
Makers of fabrications, trumpets for those who wield brute force—
Their hearts are firewood, set ablaze by depravity.
"لُعابُهُم" هَطِلٌ في سُوْحِ خِسّتهِمْ
كَما القَطيعِ بِمَرْعى الذُّلِّ قَدْ حُشِدوا
Their drool pours in torrents through the courts of their baseness,
Like a herd massed in humiliation’s pasture.
باعوا نفوسَهُمُ في سوقِ سادَتِهِمْ
بِئْسَ التِّجارةُ مِمَّنْ سُحْتَهُم حَصَدوا
They sold their souls in their masters’ marketplace—
What a wretched trade: they reaped their ill-gotten gain.
ماتَتْ ضمائرُهُم خانُوا عَلانيَةً
تَراهُمُ شِيَعًا للفُسْقِ قَدْ عَمِدوا
Their consciences died; openly, they betrayed.
You see them in factions, deliberately bent on depravity.
مِنْهُمْ شُيوخُ خَنًا بادت شمائلهم
مُذْ "شَرْعَنوا" الذَّبْحَ قُرْبانًا لِمَنْ عَبَدوا
Among them are sheikhs of obscenity whose virtues have vanished,
Since they “legitimized” slaughter as an offering to those they worshipped.
يُعْلونَ في هُبَلٍ شُلّتْ سَواعِدُهُمْ
تاللهِ قَدْ وُئِدوا في رِجْسِ ما اعْتقَدوا
They exalt a Hubal—may their arms be paralyzed!
By God, they were buried alive in the filth of what they believed.
(يَبْغونَها عِوَجًا) شاهَتْ وُجوهُهُمُ
الزَّيفُ دَيْدَنهُم وشأوُهمْ أودُ
“They seek to make it crooked”—may their faces be disfigured!
Falsehood is their creed, and crookedness their farthest reach.
دَسائِسًا تَحتَ جُنْحِ اللَّيلِ قَدْ نَسَجوا
أوطانَهُم صَلبوا والغَبْنَ قَدْ وَرَدوا
Intrigues they wove beneath the wing of night;
They crucified their homelands and came to grievous loss.
ومِنْهُمُ نُخَبٌ باعوا الوَرى خُطَبًا
عَنْ حُرْمَةِ الدَّمِّ فانفَضّوا وما اتّأدوا
Among them are elites who peddled the people speeches
On the sanctity of blood, then dispersed without pausing.
يَلهونَ في مَرَجٍ لا شَيءَ يردَعُهُمْ
لهْوَ الضِّباعِ إذا ما غابَتِ الأُسُدُ
They frolic in an open meadow, with nothing to deter them,
Like hyenas at play when the lions are gone.
وَخَلْفَ أقْدامِ سُلطانٍ طَغى زَلَفوا
زَحْفًا كأنَّهُمُ في نَعْلِهِ عُقِدوا
Behind the feet of a tyrannical ruler they crowd close,
Crawling—as though they were knotted into his sandal.
