يعقوبُ ويلَ أبيك أيَّةُ هُوةٍ

دلّاك في لهواتِها الإقدامُ

Jacob, woe to your father! What abyss

Led you to its precipices of recklessness?

بل أيُّ شأنٍ رمتَ مني لم يكن

لولا سفاهُك مثلهُ فيرامُ

Rather, what business had you with me that was not

Due to your foolishness, unmatched as it is?

حاولتَهُ والهولُ يزخرُ دونَه

كالبحرِ جلَّلَ متنه الإظلامُ

You attempted it though horror lay beneath

Like a sea, its surface cloaked in darkness.

غطَّى عماكَ على هُداكَ فجئتني

وعلى بصيرةِ هادييك غمامُ

It covered the sight upon your guidance, so you came to me

While clouds obscured your guiding light.

عشوَ الفراشةِ نحو موقدِ مُصطلٍ

فانتاشها من جانبيه ضِرامُ

Like a moth drawn to a kindled flame,

Burned by it on both sides, wings scorched.

فاقبضْ حصائدَ ما زرعتَ قصائداً

شُنُعا تجدِّدُ عارها الأيامُ

So reap what you sowed in odious poems

Whose disgrace is renewed by days.

يا ابن العواهر قولةً وضعت بها

عن ظهري الأوزارُ والآثامُ

O son of harlots, in words you attributed to me

The burdens and sins from my back.

ليس الحرامُ عضيهتي لك مُفحشاً

بل مهنتي فيكَ القريضَ حرامُ

Forbidden vice with me is no disgrace to you

Rather, satirizing you became forbidden to me.

ولقد ردعتُ الشعرَ عنك تنزُّهاً

إذ لامني في شتمك الأقوامُ

I held poetry back from you out of piety

When people blamed me for insulting you.

فأبتْ جوامحُ للهجاء نوازعٌ

لا يستطيعُ جِماحهن لجامُ

But passions for invective had unruly urges

That could not be reined in by any bridle.