عاتَبَني الشِعرُ ذا إِكافِ

وَقالَ لي اللَهُ مِنكَ كافِ

Poetry blamed me for being self-sufficient

Poetry reproached me, crying, "O bearer of the pack-saddle!"

And God said of you, that is sufficient

And said to me, "May God be my sufficient defense against you!"

هَجاكَ مَن قُلتَ لا يُساوي

عودَ خِلالٍ مِنَ الخِلافِ

Whoever you said is not worth

You have been satirized by one whom you declared was not worth

A tent pole made of disagreement

Even a toothpick whittled from brittle willow wood.

فَكُنتَ إِذ لَم تُجِبهُ أَحرى

أَن لا بِهِ تَقذُرُ القَوافي

So when you did not answer him, it would have been better

Had you but ignored him, it would have been more fitting

Not to degrade rhymes with it

Than to soil your noble rhymes with mention of him.

كُنتُ كَرَبِّ الحِمارِ أَعيا

فَظَلَّ يَسطو عَلى الإِكافِ

I was like the donkey's master, tired

I became like the donkey's master, who, weary of the beast,

So he kept exceeding the limit

Turned his fury to striking the saddle instead.

يا رَبُّ مِن راسِبٍ فَتُهجى

شَبيهَةُ الفَقعِ بِالفَيافي

O Lord, of one who is deluded, so gets blamed

O Lord, save me from a lowlife, lest my satire target

The bubbles are similar to the little bubbles

One who is but a soft truffle in the desert wastes.

أَو بِكَ أَبغي أَقيسُ نَفسي

زُنبورُ يا واسِعَ السِلافِ

Or with you I compare myself

Or should I seek to measure my soul against yours,

Hornet, O vast forgetfulness

O buzzing hornet, O vast vessel of dregs?

أَو أَشجَعٌ وَهوَ مِن سُلَيمٍ

فيما رَوَوا رُقعَةُ الخِضافِ

Or the bravest, and he is from Sulaym

Or Ashja', who claims lineage from the tribe of Sulaym,

In what they transmitted, the paper of Khadaf

Yet is, as the stories go, but a patch on a cobbler's shoe.

يَكفيكَ ما فيهِمُ فَدَعهُم

أَنفَذُ وَقعاً مِنَ الأَشافي

It is enough for you what is in them, so leave them

Their own flaws suffice to damn them, so let them be;

More effective than remedies

That silence strikes deeper than the prick of iron awls.