أتيتُ ابنَ عمروٍ فصادفتهُ

مريضَ الخلائق مُلتاثَها

I came to Ibn ‘Amr and found him

Sick in disposition, exhausted.

فظلَّتْ جيادي على بابِه

تَروثُ وتأكل أرواثَها

So my horses stood at his door

Munching and eating their fodder.

غوارثَ تشكو إلى ربها

أطال السَبِيعيُّ إغراثَها

Thirsty camels complaining to their Lord

That the night was too long for their watering.

فأقبلتُ أدعو على نفسه

بأن يَقْسِم الموتُ ميراثَها

So I began to invoke curses upon him,

That death might share out his inheritance.

وقد قيلَ ما قولةٌ قالها

فقلت لهم رَوثةٌ راثَها

Much was said that need not be repeated;

I told them it was the camels’ excrement.

لقد ماثَ من جَعْسِهِ عِترَةً

فأسعطتهُ بالتي ماثَها

He had certainly vomited from his fullness;

I made him disgorge what he had swallowed.

وأما القوافي فقلَّبتُها

وأخرجتُ للعبد أرفاثَها

As for the rhymes, I jumbled them up

And brought out the booby’s nonsense.

قَوافٍ أبى الوَغْدُ إبريزَهَا

فأخلصتُ للوغد أخباثَها

Rhymes that the fool refused to string together

I reserved for the fool his stupidities.

أوابِدُ قد خيَّستْ قبلَهُ

كهولَ الرجال وأحداثَها

Desolate places that had long lain waste,

And old men worn out with age,

إذا نزلتْ في ديار العُتا

ةِ كانت من الضيق أجداثَها

When they halted in the abodes of Utá

Were cramped in its narrow passes.

فكم حَطْمةٍ حَطَمَ الشعر في

هِ ثَمَّ وكم عَيْثةٍ عاثَها

How much poetry he broke in it,

And how much rubbish he scattered!

ولا جُرمَ لي أن أساءت جَنا

ةُ مزرعةٍ كان حَرَّاثَها

Surely I cannot be blamed if the wing

Of a falcon missed the quarry it was chasing.

ولا ذنبَ للنار في سَفعةٍ

إذا هو أصبحَ محراثَها

Nor can fire be at fault if the helmet

Turned out in the morning to be its fuel.

وليس القوافي جنتْ بل جنَيْـ

ـتَ أنت تعسفتَ أوعاثَها

The rhymes did no wrong, but you

Wronged them, exceeding all bounds.

نكثتَ مرائرَ ذاك المديـ

ـح جهلاً فقُلِّدتَ أنكاثَها

You violated the beauties of that eulogy

Through ignorance, and were left with trifles.