رقابُ أَهلِ الحُلُوم مُعْتَبَدَهْ

مقصودةٌ بالهوان مُعْتَمَدَهْ

The necks of the arrogant are destined to be humiliated,

Intended for disgrace, dependent.

فادَّرعِ الجهل فوقهنّ ولا

يُغفل حليمٌ من جهله عُدَدَهْ

So don the armor of ignorance over them, but do not

Let a forbearing one forget the number of his ignorant acts.

وعامِل الجاهلَ السفيه بما

يقيم من متن عوده أودَهْ

And deal with the ignorant fool according to

What will make the twistedness of his stick straighten out.

من صَوْنك الحلمَ أن تدَّرِعَه ال

جهلَ فظاهرْ من دونه زَرَدَهْ

It is your forbearance that armors you so that ignorance does not

Expose you. Without it, you are stripped naked.

ولا يريبنّ ثعلبٌ أسداً

إلا قَراه رَداه أو طردَهْ

And let no sly fox provoke a lion

Unless he sees it, repels it, or drives it away.

تالله ما يأمر السداد بأن

أُسْلِمَ عودي لكلِّ من خضدَهْ

By God, propriety does not order that

I surrender my stick to all who have bent it.

أعتقتُ عَبدَيَّ في القريض معاً

عبدةَ والفحلَ من بني عبَدَهْ

I freed both my slave and stallion together

A servant and one from the clan of Abd.

إنْ أنا لم أجزِ بالإِساءة من

زاغ عن القصد أو أبَى رشدَهْ

If I do not repay with harm those who

Deviate from righteousness or refuse to be guided,

فقل لمن أُبرِق العذابَ له

إن أنت لم تخش يومه فغدَهْ

Then say to those whom torment has been hastened,

"If you did not fear the day after tomorrow..."

أستغفر الله من مخالصتي

إخوانَ سوء أَدِقَّةً زَهَدَهْ

I seek God's forgiveness for my associations with

Wicked brothers, most devoutly ascetic.

عَمرْتُ دهراً أراهُمُ عُقَداً

لنائبات الزمان مُعتَقَدَهْ

I lived an age seeing them as a necklace

For the vicissitudes of time, clinging to them.

ثم تبينتُ أنهم قُذُرٌ

ليست لدى فَقْدها بمفتقَدَهْ

But then I realized they are filth—

When absent, they are not missed.

أقسمتُ لا زلتُ هاجياً لهمُ

ما التطم البحر قاذفاً زَبَدَهْ

I swore I would continue to hound them

As long as the sea churns up its foam.

ويل لمن نام عن مَراشده

سينقضي ليْلُهُ وما رقدَهْ

Woe to him who sleeps away from his duties—

His night will end and he will not have rested.

لا يَلْحني جارمٌ سطوتُ به

من زرع الشرَّ عامداً حصدَهْ

No offender provokes me unless I have

Reaped what he sowed, intentionally planting it.

لستُ بباغٍ على المشاغب ذي ال

بَغْي ولا عزّتي بمضطهدَهْ

I am no rebel who is hostile without

Reason or whose honor lies in oppression.

جعلتُ عدلَ القصاص مُلتَحدي

فليَكن البَغْيُ ثَمَّ مُلْتحَدَهْ

I made justice through retaliation my peer—

So let rebellion, and then retaliation, ensue.

كذاك إني خُلْقت ذا لَدَدٍ

حتى أرى الخصْمَ تاركاً لددَهْ

That is how I was created—tough

Until I see my opponent abandon his toughness.

لا سيَّما من عَفْوتُ عنه فأطْ

غَتْه أَناتي وهيَّجَتْ صَيدضهْ

Especially one I pardoned, which made

Him exceed bounds and stir up trouble.

قلتُ لمن قال لي عرضْتُ على ال

أخْفش ما قلتَه فما حَمدَهْ

I said to one who told me, "You presented

To Al-Akhfash what you said, but he did not praise it,"

قَصَّرتَ بالشعر حين تعرضه

على مُبين العمى إذا انتقدَهْ

"You fell short with your poetry when you presented it

To one clearly blind when he examines it."

ما قال شعراً ولا رواه فلا

ثَعْلَبَه كان لا ولا أسدَهْ

He said no poetry and related none, so he is neither

A sly fox nor a lion.

فإن يقل إنني رَوَيْتُ فكال

دفْتَر جهلاً بكل ما اعتقدَهْ

If he claims I related it to him, it is as if

An ignorant ledger contained all he believed.

أرُمتَ زيني بأن تُعرِّضني

لمدحه فالذليل من عَضَدَهْ

Did you intend to honor me by presenting me

To praise him? The disgraced one is he who supported him.

أم رمت شَيْني بأن تعرضني

لثلبه فالسَّليم من قصدَهْ

Or did you intend to dishonor me by presenting me

To his trickery? He who aimed at him is safe.

أنشدته منطقي ليشهده

فغاب عنه عَمىً وما شهدَهْ

I recited to him my eloquence so he could witness it,

But blindness kept him from it—he did not witness it.

وقال قولاً بغير معرفةٍ

إفكاً فما حلَّ إفكُهُ عُقَدَهْ

And he spoke words without knowledge,

Lies which his lies did not substantiate.

شعريَ شعرٌ إذا تأمَّله ال

إنسان ذو الفهم والحجا عَبَدَهْ

My poetry, when contemplated by

A man of wisdom, understanding, and devotion, worships it.

لكنه ليس منطقاً بعثَ ال

لَهُ به آيةً لمن جحدَهْ

But it is not a discourse that inspires

Him who denies it with a sign against his denial.

ولا أنا المفهِم البهائَم وال

طَيْرَ سليمانُ قاهرُ المردَهْ

Nor am I the one who makes the beasts and

Birds understand—Solomon, subduer of jinn.

ما بلغتْ بي الخطوب رتبةَ من

تفهم عنه الكلاب والقردَهْ

Troubles have not reached me to the rank of one

Whose dogs and monkeys understand him.

وحسب قردٍ أراه يحسدني

أن يسْكنَ اللَّهُ قلبَه حسدَهْ

It is enough that I see a monkey envy me

That God soothe its envious heart.

لا خفَّفَ اللَّهُ عنه من حسدي

وزاده اللَّه فوقه كمدَهْ

May God not lighten its envy of me

And may God increase its envy further.

ولا تزل صورتي إذا طلعت

لناظريه قذاه بل رمدَهْ

And may my image, when it appears

To its beholders, blind it and make it bleary.

ما ضرَّ شعري أعابه سفهاً

أم دسَّ في حُجر أمِّه وتَدَهْ

My poetry is not harmed if an ignoramus finds fault with it

Or if he buries it in his mother's bosom as a keepsake.

أُرْعدْتُ إرعادها مجبِّيةً

إن لم أكثِّر من ابنها رِعَدَهْ

I threatened to terrify her with thunder

If I did not greatly increase her son's thunder.

يا عجباً منه والعجائبُ لا

تنفد ما مد دهرنا مَدَدَهْ

How strange is he—and strangenesses do not

Cease as long as time extends its extension—

أيغتدي ذا عمى وذا صمم

من فَتَحَتْ كلُّ فَيْشَة سُدَدَهْ

Does one blind and deaf transgress

When each viper's fang has opened its closure?

لا رحم اللَّهُ أُمَّ أخْفَشكمْ

ولا سقى قبر والد وَلَدَهْ

May God not have mercy on the mother of your Al-Akhfash,

Or quench the thirst of his father's grave.

ماذا عليه وقد رأى ولداً

أعور جَمَّ العُوار لو وأدَهْ

What would he do when he saw a son

Whose blindness was extreme even if he disowned him?

ما البنت أولى بذاك منه إذا

هَزاهزُ النَّيْك هزهزتْ عَمَدَهْ

The daughter is more deserving of that than him if

The swinging of her clitoris swung its pillar.

قبحاً لمختاره وصاحبه

ومجتبيه فما رأى رَشَدَهْ

Ugly is its chooser, its companion,

And its selector—he did not see its guidance.

يا عجباً من مُشَوَّهٍ نَطفٍ

واجدُه في الورى كمن فَقَدهْ

How strange is a deformed sperm

Whose match is not found in the world like one who lost it.

أسقطه الجهل والسَّفال فما

يصلح إلا لكفِّ من قَفَدَهْ

Ignorance and vileness cast him out so he is only fit

To cover the palm of one who cups it.

يخطِب حربي على تمردها

لموعدٍ كان ظنُّه وعدَهْ

He wooed my war despite its defiance

For a promised time which he thought was its appointment.

مستمطراً عارضي صواعقه

جهلاً وحيْناً ولم يُطِق بردَهْ

Seeking rain from my clouds, in ignorance

Sometimes, but he could not withstand its cold.

بُعداً لمن أَنذَر الدُخَانُ وقد

أَوقد شَرِّي فما اتقى وَقَدَهْ

Begone, you who the smoke warned but

Who kindled my evil and did not fear its kindling.

يقدح في أثْلَتي وينحتُها

من غير وتْرٍ علمته حَقَدَهْ

He faults my thick legs and carves them up

Without a lute, I knew his resentment.

يَقفده معشرٌ ويشتمني

وثأرُه في أصابع القَفَدَهْ

A group rectify him and insult me,

And his revenge is in the fingertips that cup.

من حقه أن يكون مَصْفَعَةً

أذلّ للصافعين من نَقدَهْ

It is his right to be a resounding slap

More humiliating to the slappers than his slap.

مُوَضَّعٌ يستكدُّ فقْحَتَهُ

مُلتَمساً للبنين والحفدَهْ

He is positioned to flaunt his vulgarity

Seeking boys and grandchildren.

أقسمتُ لو أُولدَ الرجال لقد

أُولد أَلفاً وحقَّ أن يلدَهْ

I swear that if real men were born,

A thousand would be born deserving to birth him.

وليس يأَتي البنون من رحمِ ال

فقحة إن ذاد عقلهُ فَنَدهْ

And sons do not come from the womb of

Vulgarity if his intellect restrains its discharge.

وشرُّ عُضْوٍ يكون في رَجُلٍ

مقْعَدة لا تزال مُقْتَعَدَهْ

The worst limb for a man is a paralyzed

One that does not stop being paralyzed.

أقول لما رأيتُ أخفشَكم

يجيل في مُقْدِم الغلامِ يدَهْ

I say, from what I have seen of your Al-Akhfash

Caressing the slave boy's forehead with his hand,

ماذا يُريغُ الضرير مجتهداً

قالوا عَصَاهُ لنازلٍ جَهَدَهْ

What can the blind man babble on insistently about?

They said, "His staff assists him when he makes an effort."

عصا من اللحم والعروق له

يجسُّ تلميذُه بها كبدَهْ

A staff of flesh and veins which

His student feels with to gauge its liver—

مَسْكَنُها في حشا أبي حَسَنٍ

لا أسكن الله روحه جسدَهْ

Its home is in the lap of Abu Hassan.

May God not allow his soul to settle in his body.

أسجدُ من هدهدٍ إذا برزت

فيشةُ فحلٍ عظيمة العَكَدَهْ

I prostrate from a hoopoe when the

Genitalia of a great stallion emerges—

ممن أبى الله أن ينفِّلَه

أجراً وما إن يزال في السَّجَدَهْ

From one who God refused to lavish

Reward on, yet he persists in prostration.

لا يشتهي من مُهَفْهَفٍ جَيَداً

بل يشتهي من عُجارمٍ جَيَدَهْ

He does not desire a well-formed gazelle

Rather, he desires a coarse, heavyset female.

ما زال لا يشتهي النواهد مذْ

كان غلاماً ويشتهي النَّهدَهْ

He still does not desire delicate morsels since

He was a boy, desiring only breasts.

سأسْمعُ الناس ذمّه أبداً

ما سمع الله حمد من حمدَهْ

I will let people censure him forever

As long as God does not hear praise from his praise.