يا رُبَّ بصريٍّ رصاصيِّ الشَّمَطْ

يا رُبَّ بصريٍّ رصاصيِّ الشَّمَطْ

عاندني فلو تنفَّستُ ضَرَطْ

عاندني فلو تنفَّستُ ضَرَطْ

Ah, many a Basran with lead-gray grizzled hair

O Lord, my eyesight is leaden

Has defied me—if I breathed, he would fart.

He antagonized me, so if I farted he shat

في الرأس واللحيةِ منه شُهْبةٌ

في الرأس واللحيةِ منه شُهْبةٌ

زَرقاءُ والوجه لطرموس النَّبط

زَرقاءُ والوجه لطرموس النَّبط

His head and beard have a gray tinge,

In his head and beard there is a streak

Bluish—and his face is that of Tarmus of the Nabataeans.

Of blue, and his face is like the face of an Nabataean

كأنه جوزةُ هندٍ أخذتْ

كأنه جوزةُ هندٍ أخذتْ

فقُشِّرَتْ أطرافها دون الوسطْ

فقُشِّرَتْ أطرافها دون الوسطْ

As though he were a coconut that was taken

He is like an Indian walnut that

And peeled at its ends, but not in the middle.

Had its edges peeled but not the middle

ينتقدُ الشعرَ ولا يعْرفُهُ

ينتقدُ الشعرَ ولا يعْرفُهُ

أكثر من قولته هذا النمطْ

أكثر من قولته هذا النمطْ

He criticizes poetry, yet knows no more of it

He criticizes poetry yet does not know it

Than his saying, 'This style.'

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