وَما وَقى اِبنُكَ عَبدُ اللَهِ أَينُقَهُ

لَمّا اِطَّلَعتَ عَلَيها في مَراعيها

Your son ʿAbd Allah did not shield his she-camels

when you came upon them in their grazing grounds.

ها في حِماهُ وَهيَ سارِحَةٌ

مِثلَ القُصورِ قَدِ اِهتَزَّت أَعاليها

There they were in his preserve, ranging freely,

like palaces, their lofty tops swaying.

فَقُلتَ ما كانَ عَبدُ اللَهِ يُشبِعُها

لَو لَم يَكُن وَلَدي أَو كانَ يُرويها

Then you said: “ʿAbd Allah could never have fattened them so

had he not been my son—even if he himself gave them drink.

قَدِ اِستَعانَ بِجاهي في تِجارَتِهِ

وَباتَ بِاِسمِ أَبي حَفصٍ يُنَمّيها

He sought the aid of my prestige in his trading,

and, through the name Abu Hafs, kept multiplying them.

رُدّوا النِياقَ لِبَيتِ المالِ إِنَّ لَهُ

حَقَّ الزِيادَةِ فيها قَبلَ شاريها

Return the she-camels to the public treasury, for it

has a right to their increase before their purchaser.”

وَهَذِهِ خُطَّةٌ لِلَّهِ واضِعُها

رَدَّت حُقوقاً فَأَغنَت مُستَميحيها

This is a policy whose framer is devoted to God;

it restored rights and enriched those who sought its bounty.

ما الاِشتِراكِيَّةُ المَنشودُ جانِبُها

بَينَ الوَرى غَيرَ مَبنىً مِن مَبانيها

What is socialism, whose cause is so sought

among humankind, but one edifice among this policy’s edifices?

فَإِن نَكُن نَحنُ أَهليها وَمَنبِتَها

فَإِنَّهُم عَرَفوها قَبلَ أَهليها

And if we are its people and the soil from which it sprang,

they knew it before its own people did.