أَلاَ اسْمَعْ قَدْ أجَابَتْكَ الْهُدَاةُ

بِمَا تَعْنُو لِحُجَّتِهِ الْغُوَاةُ

Listen, the righteous have answered you

Listen well! The rightly guided have answered you,

With what the misguided argue for their case

With proofs to which the misguided must humbly submit.

فَقَدْ حَاجَيْتَ فِي صَرَمَتْكَ أَسْمَا

ءُ بَعْدَ وِصَالِهَا فَبَدَا الشَّمَاتُ

You have contended obstinately, after attaining the names,

For you have posed a riddle about Asma severing her ties,

So the fault-finders appeared

After her past union, which brought forth the gloating of foes.

فَفِي صَرَمَتْكَ مَعْ ذَا وِصالٍ شَكْلٌ

وَفِي مَا بَعْدَهُ أَيْضاً هَنَاتُ

In your obstinacy, despite the attainment, there is a form

For in 'she cut you off' alongside this union, there is an ambiguity,

And after it, there is also anxiety

And in what follows it, there are also subtle flaws.

غَدَا مِنْهَا تَمُكْتَئِباً حَزِيناً

يُوَازِنُهُ مَفَاعِلُ فَاعِلاَتُ

You became from it depressed and sad

From which one becomes dejected and sorrowful,

It is balanced by its rhyming meter

Whose measure is balanced by the prosodic feet of Mafa'ilu Fa'ilatu.

وَفِي نَجْمٍ يُرَى فَتَغِيبُ شَمْسٌ

بِإِثْرِ طُلُوعِهِ فَإِذَا الْبَيَاتُ

And in a star that is seen, a sun disappears

And in a star that appears, causing a sun to set

After its rising, so there are the spent nights

Immediately upon its rising, bringing forth the sudden night.

وَفِي عِلْمِ الْمَنَائِرِ كُلَّ وَقْتٍ

نَهَارِيٍّ تَحِينُ بِهِ الصَّلاَةُ

And in the knowledge of lighthouses, at every

And in the knowledge of the minarets at every hour

Daily time, for it the prayer is anticipated

Of the day when the time for prayer arrives.

وَفِي نَاعُورَةٍ أَبْدَتْ حَنِيناً

كَمُعْوِلَةٍ أُصِيبَ لَهَا بَنَاتُ

And in a spouting fountain that showed yearning

And in a waterwheel that expressed a mournful longing,

Like a bereaved mother, for it daughters

Like a wailing mother afflicted by the loss of her daughters.

وَلَكِنْ فِي كَلاَمِكَ بَعْضُ حَشْوٍ

وَكَسْرٍ تَسْتَضِرُّ بِهِ الرُّوَاةُ

But in your words there is some padding

Yet in your speech there is some excessive filler,

And breaking that narrators are embarrassed by

And metrical fractures that distress the reciters,

إِلَى مَا لَيْسَ يَجْهَلُهُ أَدِيبٌ

لَدَيْهِ الْبَاقِيَاتُ الصَّالِحَاتُ

To what no literate person is ignorant of

Adding to matters not unknown to any man of letters

For him are the remaining righteous deeds

Who possesses enduring and righteous virtues.

فَمِنْ عَجَبٍ تُحَاجَنِي فِي عَرُوضٍ

وَتَخْتَرِمُ الْقَرِيضَ فَمَا النَّجَاةُ

So it is strange you contend with me about prosody

How astonishing that you challenge me with riddles of prosody,

And mangle rhymed prose, so what is the salvation

While you yourself violate the rules of verse—so where is your escape?