حَيرانُ أَنتَ فَأَيَّ الناسِ تَتَّبِعُ

تَجري الحُظوظُ وَكُلٌّ جاهِلٌ طَبِعُ

You are confused, so which people will you follow?

Fortunes come and go, and each is ignorant by nature,

وَالأُمُّ بِالسُدسِ عادَت وَهيَ أَرأَفُ

مِن بِنتٍ لَها النِصفُ أَو عِرسٍ لَها الرُبعُ

While a mother gets one-sixth, more compassionate

Than a daughter who gets half, or a bride who gets a quarter,

وَالحَتفُ كَالثائِرِ العادي يُصَرِّعُنا

وَالأَرضُ تَأكُلُ هَلّا تَكتَفي الضَبُعُ

Calamities batter us down like raging camels,

While the earth consumes - will the hyena ever have enough?

أَمّا دَعاويكَ فَهِيَ الآنَ مُضحِكَةٌ

وَما لِنَفسِكَ مِن أَطماعِها شِبَعُ

As for your claims, they are now laughable,

And your soul will never be sated with its greed,

يا فاسِقاً يَتَراءى أَنَّهُ مَلَكٌ

وَفارَةً عِندَ قَومٍ أَنَّها سَبُعُ

O wicked one who pretends to be an angel,

And, among a people, a cunning fox who pretends to be a lion,

ما أَشبَهَ الناسَ بِالأَنعامِ ضَمَّهُمُ

إِلى البَسيطَةِ مُصطافٌ وَمُرتَبَعُ

How people resemble livestock gathered together

To the simple open plain by a herder,

إِن لَم تَكُن فَحلَ إِبلٍ كُنتَ مُشبِهَهُ

أَعراسُكَ الذَودُ عُدَّت وَاِبنُكَ الرُبعُ

If you were not the lead camel of a herd, you would resemble it;

Your weddings are ewes counted, and your son, a lamb