ما لِلأَنامِ وَجَدتُهُم مِن جَهلِهِم

بِالدينِ أَشباهَ النَعامِ أَوِ النَعَم

What is wrong with humankind? I have found them, in their ignorance

of religion, like ostriches—or cattle.

فَمُجادِلٌ وَصَلَ الجِدالَ وَقَد دَرى

أَنَّ الحَقيقَةَ فيهِ لَيسَ كَما زَعَم

For a disputant presses on with the dispute, though he knows

that the truth of it is not as he has claimed.

عَلِمَ الفَتى النَظّارُ أَنَّ بَصائِراً

عَمِيَت فَكَم يَخفى اليَقينُ وَكَم يُعَم

The discerning young man has learned that eyes of insight

have gone blind: how often certainty is hidden, and how often made widespread.

لَو قالَ سيدُ غَضاً بُعِثتُ بِمِلَّةٍ

مِن عِندِ رَبّي قالَ بَعضُهُم نَعَم

If the lord of Ghaḍā were to say, “I have been sent with a creed

from my Lord,” some of them would say, “Yes.”