يا صَارِخاً في جُمُوعٍ ليس تُصْرِخُهُ

لِلظَّالمينَ غداً في النَّار مُصْطَرَخُ

O you crying out amid throngs that will not answer your cry,

Tomorrow the wrongdoers will cry for help in the Fire.

قَوْمٌ أفاعِيلُهم من قُبْحِها ضَرِطٌ

كَمَا مَوَاعِيدُهُمْ من إفْكِها نُفَخُ

A people whose deeds, for sheer ugliness, are farts,

Just as their promises, for sheer falsity, are puffs of wind.

أقولُ لابْنِ غِيَاثٍ إذ رأيتُ له

شَيْخاً خَسَاسَتُه تُخْزِيهِ لا الشَّيَخُ

I said to Ibn Ghiyath, when I saw that he had

An old man disgraced by his baseness—not by age:

لِمْ أنْتَ أصْيَدُ تَزْهَاهُ نظافته

ولِمْ أبُوكَ عليهِ الذُّلُّ والوَسَخُ

Why are you a proud fellow, vaunting his cleanliness,

While your father is covered in humiliation and filth?

فقال لا تَلْحَيَنَّا في تَفَاوُتِنَا

فَإنَّنَا كُتُبٌ آباؤُنا نُسَخُ

He said, “Do not blame us for the disparity between us:

We are books, and our fathers are the exemplars.”

وقَالَ أيْضاً وفي الأمثالِ متَّسَعٌ

قدْ يُخرِجُ النَّخْلَةَ الموصُوفَةَ السَّبَخُ

And he also said—for proverbs offer ample scope—

“Saline ground may bring forth a celebrated palm.”