يا أيها السائل عن ديننا

قد ذهبَ المردانُ بالدينِ

O you who ask about our religion

O you who asks about our religion,

The libertines have done away with religion

The beardless youths have run off with the faith,

نحن أُناسٌ حسَنٌ ديننا

نكسّرُ القُثاء في التينِ

We are good people in our religion

We are a people whose creed is agreeable,

We break the dried breadfruit into the mudbricks

We break the cucumber into the figs,

تحسبُها من لينها خزّة

أو فنَكاً من فنَكِ الصينِ

You think it soft from its tenderness

You would think it, for its softness, to be silk,

Or Chinese porcelain from Chinese porcelain

Or the fennec fur of China.