أدارَ العامرية بالوَحيدِ
سقاك مُجَلْجَلٌ هزجُ الرعودِ
With the Unique he circled Al-‘Āmiriyya,
A mug filled with thunderous downpour.
إذا هَضبتْ هواضبُه جَناباً
تولَّتْ منه عن أثرٍ حميدِ
When his zeal subsided somewhat,
It swerved from the path of righteousness.
كما ظهرتْ على العضْب اليماني
مآثرُ من يَدَيْ صَنَعٍ مُجيدِ
As appeared on the Yemeni plateau
The traces of one whose work was sublime,
يجود صبيبُه كدموع عيني
غداةَ ترحَّلَتْ أمُّ الوليدِ
His outpourings flow like my tears
The morning the Mother of al-Walīd departed.
تودِّع بالإشارة من بعيد
فيا حُسْنَ الإشارة من بعيدِ
She bids farewell from afar with a gesture—
How excellent is the gesture from afar!
ألا يا حبَّذا نفحاتُ نجد
ومن أمسى بمنعَرَج الصعيدِ
Would that the zephyrs of Najd blow on me,
And on him who spends his eve at the mountain pass.
ومن أخْشى إذا ما زرتُ منه
صدوداً والمَنية في الصدودِ
Most dreadful, when I visit therefrom,
Are repulsions, and death in repulsion.
أليس اللّه صيَّرني عذاباً
لأقمع كلَّ شيطانٍ مَريدِ
Did not God make me a torment
To subdue every unruly devil,
لأقمع كل عفريت وجنٍّ
بكل مفازة وبكل بيدِ
To subdue every demon and jinn
In every open desert and every desolate place?
أنا النار التي بالخلق تُغْذَى
وتوقَد بالحجارة والحديدِ
I am the fire, fueled by mankind,
And ignited by gravel and iron.
إذا نضجَتْ جلود القوم فيها
أُعيد لهم سوى تلك الجلودِ
When their hides are cooked well-done therein,
I restore them minus those hides.
يقال هل امتلأْت وكلُّ خلقٍ
بها فتقول لا هَلْ من مزيدِ
It is said, “Are you full, and has
Every creature entered you?” She says, “No, is there any more?”
إذا عَطشوا سقيتُهُم صديداً
فويلُ القوم من شُرْب الصديدِ
When they are thirsty, I give them acid to drink—
Woe unto the people from drinking acid!
فأين هُبلتَ تهرب من هجائي
وأين هبلتَ تهرب من قصيدي
So where did you flee, fleeing from my invective?
And where did you flee, fleeing from my ode?
ولو في است التي ولدتك مني
هربت أتتك بائقةُ النشيدِ
Even if you fled into the vagina that birthed you from me,
The remnants of song would reach you.
أُصِمُّ بها صداك وأنت فيه
وأمْنعُ مقلتيك من الهجودِ
I deafen your hearing while you are in it,
And prevent your eyes from shedding tears.
إليكَ سُلالة الطَّحَّان أحدو
بها صمَّاء كالحجر الصلودِ
To you, offspring of the Miller, I hurl
Deaf stones, solid as the rock.
تَرُمُّ عظام لابسها وتُبْلي
ولا تَبْلى على أبد الأبيدِ
They crumble the bones of their wearer and corrode them,
Yet they themselves do not wear out, never ever.
إذا قلت الليالي أهرمتْها
بدت شَنعاء في سنِّ الوليدِ
When I say “the nights,” I make them senile,
They look hideous in old age.
تَبثُّ حديث أمك ذي المخازي
وباخرْزيِّها نجْل اليهودِ
She chatters the tale of your mother DHū l-Khizām
And her midst seems like that of a Jew.
لياليَ لا يزال لها خليلٌ
ويُعملُها كإعمال القَعُودِ
Nights that have a constant lover
Who treats them like someone made to sit watch.
يشكُّ خِلال حَاذيها بعَبْل
عظيم الرأس منتفخ الوريدِ
He suspects their attendants to have an afflatus
With a huge head and distended veins.
فكم من نطفةٍ قد أعجَلْتها
وما حالت إلى العَلق العقيدِ
So how many a seed have you hurried
That did not make it to the clotted blood!
وكم لك من أبٍ لم تحتسبه
وكم لك من أخٍ منها شهيدِ
And how many a father have you not accounted for!
And how many a brother of yours lies dead!
تركَّضَ حين تمَّ فأزْلقته
بلا عُسْر ولا تعب شديدِ
She pranced when she was done, and it made her slip
With no hardship or terrible exertion.
وكيف تضيق عن مُلْقى جنينٍ
وكَعْثَبُهَا بريدٌ في بريدِ
How can it be too tight for the discarded fetus
When her vagina is a gaping chasm within chasms?
فألقَتْ شلْوَهُ من رأس طودٍ
فِعال الجاهلية بالوئيدِ
She threw it out like carrion, from the top of a mountain,
An act of paganism against the newborn babe.
فكم من قِتْلَةٍ وَجَبَتْ عليها
وكم في ظهر أمك من حدودِ
So how many murders has she been duty bound for!
And how many legal penalties lie behind your mother’s back!
ألم تخبركَ لِمْ ولدتك أعمى
هوت في النار من أعلى صَعُودِ
Did she not tell you why she birthed you blind?
She plunged into the fire from the highest mountain path.
عمِيتَ لأنها جعلتك نصباً
تَهدَّفُه غراميل العبيدِ
You were blinded so she could make you a butt
For the slingshots of slave-girls to pelt.
وكيف تُراك تسلم من أيورٍ
تَعاقَبُ فيك بالطعن الشديدِ
How do you expect to be safe from deadly spears
That alternate their fierce stabs at you?
أتزعم فعل ربك كان ظلماً
بأُمَّةِ صالحٍ وبقوم هودِ
Do you claim your Lord’s action was unjust
Regarding the community of Ṣāliḥ and the people of Hūd?
ببيتَيْك اللذين يخبِّرانا
بمحض الكفر عنك وبالجحودِ
Regarding your two poems that inform us
Of nothing but your disbelief and ingratitude?
فما أرجو بمَهْلك قوم عادٍ
ومن صبِّ العذاب على ثمودِ
I do not hope for the destruction of ‘Ād’s people,
Or those on whom the torment was unleashed at Thamūd.
فأين محمد أم أين عيسى
أليسا مثلهم تحت الصعيدِ
So where is Muḥammad? Or where is Jesus?
Are they not, like them, beneath the soil?
عجبت وقد خلوتَ تُدير هذا
لحكم اللّه ذي العرش المجيدِ
I am shocked that you have dared
To question the judgement of God, Lord of the Glorious Throne.
ألم يُلْحقْكَ أوشكَ ما لحاقٍ
بإخوتك المسوخ من القرودِ
Has He not almost allotted to you what allotment
Befell your sisters, the apes and pigs?
خسرتَ الدين والدنيا جميعاً
كذاك تكونُ مَنْحَسةُ الجدودِ
You have lost religion and world altogether—
Thus, the ill-omened are ever ill-fated!
