ما كنتَ في بخس الجزاء بمشبهٍ
إلا كَنِيَّك يا أبا أيوبِ
You were not stingy in repaying favors, like your peers,
O Abu Ayyoub!
وأَراك أيضاً مثلَهُ في جودهِ
للراكبين بظهره المركوبِ
And I see you just as generous in your bounty
To riders on your mounted beast.
أصبحتَ كالجمل الذي لا يُرتجى
لجزاءِ عارفةٍ ولا تثويبِ
You have become like a camel that expects
No reward of thanks or recompense.
ما أنت في الأحياء بالحيّ الذي
يُطرى ولا بالميِّتِ المندوبِ
You are not among the living, the one who is cajoled and flattered,
Nor the dead, who is mourned and eulogized.
أبديتَ صفحة قسوةٍ وخشونةٍ
من دون تافِه نَيْلك المطلوبِ
You have shown only harshness and roughness
Without your slightest wish being fulfilled.
فكأنك الينبوتُ في إبدائهِ
شوكاً يذودُ به عن الخرّوبِ
It is as if you are the jujube tree displaying
Thorns to ward off those who would strip it bare.
لو كان نائلكُ المُحجَّب نائلاً
لَعَذَرتُ مَنْعةَ بابك المحجوبِ
If your requester had been a noble man,
I would have excused your door barred and locked.
يا ضَيفَهُ أبشرْ فإنك غانمٌ
أجر الصيام وليس بالمكتوبِ
O guest of his! Rejoice, for you will gain
The reward of fasting, though unrecorded.
ولو استطاع لحَبْطِ أجرك حيلةً
لاحتال في ذاك احتيالَ أريبِ
If he could find a way to nullify your reward through some trick—
He would have devised the most cunning of schemes!
وأراهُ سَخَّاه بصومك علمُهُ
أنْ ليس صومُ الكُره بالمحسوبِ
And I see—his allowing you to fast teaches him
That forced fasting is not counted.
أو ظَنُّهُ أنْ لا صيامَ لضيفِه
مع رَتْعه في عرضه المسبوبِ
Or he thinks his guest cannot really fast
While enduring his abuse and insults.
أيظنُّ غِيبتَهُ تُفطِّر صائماً
قُبحاً له ولظنِّه المكذوبِ
Does he think his absence breaks the faster's fast?
Shame on him and his fabricated assumption!
لا تحسبَنَّ على امرىءٍ في شتمِه
حُوباً فما في شتمه من حُوبِ
Do not consider a man insulting you to be a disgrace,
For there is no disgrace in his insults.
رَهِلُ المحاجر والجفون ترى له
وجهاً يؤكِّدُ قُبحَهُ بقُطوبِ
His cheeks and eyelids sag—his face confirms
His ugliness with its permanent frown.
أبداً تراه راكعاً في ثَردةٍ
مأدومةٍ بإهالةِ المصلوبِ
You always see him kneeling with unkempt hair
Like a crucified body left hanging.
مُتتابعَ الأسقام من تُخمَاتِهِ
لا يَشفِ ذاك الداء طبُّ طبيبِ
His illnesses follow one another continuously,
No cure can heal except that of the grave.
ومُصِّححُ الأضياف يَسلَمُ ضيفُهُ
من كل داءٍ غيرَ داء الذيبِ
The Healer of guests grants health to his guest
From every sickness but the rabid dog's bite.
يتنفّس الصُّعداء من كِظَّاتهِ
لا فارقَتْه زفرةُ المكروبِ
The breathless gasp relief from his oppressiveness—
No sigh of the anguished escapes him.
ياحسرتا لقصيدةٍ أغلقتُها
بمديحهِ وفتحتُها بنسيبِ
Oh what regrets! My poem that began
With praise of him ends with dispraise!
لأبدِّلنَّ مديحه قذْعاً له
ولأجعلنَّ بأمه تشبيبي
I will change my praising him to disparaging him
And my poetry will make his mother the subject of shameful taunts!
