1. أعقب القربَ من حبيبك شحطُ

    ولأيدي الخطوب قبضٌ وبسطُ

    Distance followed closeness to your beloved;

    calamity's hands have their grasping and releasing.

  2. خانكَ الدهرُ أسوةَ الناس كلّا

    بل وفى إنَّ ما ترى منهُ شرطُ

    Time betrayed you, like everyone else? No—

    rather, it kept faith: what you see from it was stipulated.

  3. شرطَ الدهرُ فجْعَ كل مُحبٍّ

    وهو فظٌ على المحبَّين سَلطُ

    Time stipulated the bereavement of every lover;

    it is harsh and domineering toward lovers.

  4. بعُدتْ خُطوة النَوى بغزالٍ

    يُقْصِرُ الدَلُّ خطوَهُ حين يخطُو

    Separation's stride carried a gazelle far away,

    whose coquetry shortens his stride when he walks.

  5. أهيف الغصنِ أهيل الدِّعص لما

    يقتسمْ مِثلهُ وشاحٌ ومِرط

    Slender as a branch, softly rounded as a sandhill—never yet

    have sash and cloak shared another like him.

  6. بختريٌّ كأنه حين يمشي

    يتثنى به من البان سبْط

    He swaggers, as though, when he walks,

    a supple branch of bān sways with him.

  7. يجتني حبةَ الفؤاد بعينٍ

    ليس في حُكْمِها على الصبِّ قِسط

    He plucks the heart's kernel with an eye

    whose judgment upon the lovesick has no justice,

  8. وبجيدٍ كأنما نيطَ فيه

    من نجوم السماءِ عقدٌ وسمط

    and with a neck as though there were hung upon it

    a necklace and a strand of the sky's stars.

  9. طيِّبٌ ريقُهُ إذا ذُقتَ فاه

    والثريا بالجانب الغورِ قُرْط

    His saliva is sweet when you taste his mouth,

    and the Pleiades at the low horizon are an earring.

  10. وكأن الأنفاسَ تصدر منه

    عن خُزامى بها من النَّور وخط

    His breaths seem to issue

    from lavender flecked with blossoms.

  11. لم تُعوِّضكَ دارُهُ منه لمَّا

    ظِلتَ تبكي وللصبابة فَرط

    His dwelling gave you no replacement for him when

    you remained weeping, passion overflowing,

  12. غيرَ وحشيةٍ تزيدك شوقاً

    حين تَرنو وتارةً حين تَعطو

    except a wild doe that increases your longing

    when she gazes, or sometimes stretches upward.

  13. بدلٌ بالحبيبِ وكْسٌ كما استُب

    دلَ بالجنتينِ أثلٌ وخَمط

    An inferior substitute for the beloved, just as

    tamarisk and bitter shrubs replaced the two gardens.

  14. بان بينونةَ الشباب حميداً

    نحو أرض مزارُها مُستَشِطُّ

    He departed, praiseworthy, as youth departs,

    toward a land exceedingly distant to visit.

  15. فسقتْ أرضَهُ سحائبُ دُهمٌ

    أشعلتها بُروقُها فهي نَبْطُ

    May dark clouds water his land,

    kindled by their lightning: they are Nabataeans.

  16. أُيّهذا الممارسي بيديه

    قدكَ لن يُؤلمَ القتادةَ خرط

    O you who grapple with me with your hands,

    enough! Stripping will not hurt the thorn-tree.

  17. هل لقوم إلا بقوميَ حلٌّ

    أم لقوم إلا بقوميَ ربطُ

    Have any people power to unbind except through mine,

    or any people power to bind except through mine?

  18. إذ بنو يعربٍ كأصحاب موسى

    وإذ الجيْشُ يوم ذلك قِبطُ

    When the sons of Yaʿrub were like Moses' companions,

    and the army that day was Copts,

  19. قومي المنجدون قحطانَ بالخي

    ل لها في عجاجة النَّقع نَحط

    my people rescued Qaḥṭān with hor-

    ses that snort amid the swirling dust.

  20. جأروا بالدعاء يستصرخونا

    فأجبنا الدعاءَ والدارُ شحط

    They cried out in supplication, calling us to their rescue;

    we answered their call, though our home was distant.

  21. فكشطْنا سماءَ ذُلٍّ عليهم

    لم يكن يُرتجَى لها الدهرَ كشطُ

    We stripped away the sky of humiliation above them,

    which none had ever hoped to strip away.

  22. عَمِروا حِقبَةً كثُلَّةِ ضأنٍ

    خُلِّيَت بينها سَراحين مُعط

    For an age they had lived like a flock of sheep

    among which hairless wolves had been let loose.

  23. فأويْنا لهم وما عطفتْنا

    رحِمٌ بيننا هناكَ تئَطُّ

    We pitied them, not moved by

    any groaning bond of kinship between us there,

  24. بل حِفاظٌ فينا إذا قيل حاموا

    وسماحٌ فينا إذا قيل أعطُو

    but by our zeal for honor when told, 'Defend!'

    and our generosity when told, 'Give!'

  25. فسمَتْ سموةً لجمعِ أبي يك

    سومَ غُلبٌ من أُسد خفَّان ضُبطُ

    So they surged against the host of Abū Yak-

    sūm, thick-necked lions of Khaffān, strong in both forepaws.

  26. فاقتضيناهُمُ الديون وقِدْماً

    لم يفُتنا بها الغريمُ المُلِطُّ

    We exacted the debts from them; of old,

    no evasive debtor ever escaped us with them,

  27. برماحٍ مَداعس وصِفاحٍ

    مرهفاتٍ لهنَّ قدٌّ وقطُّ

    with thrusting spears and broad blades,

    keen-edged, that slice lengthwise and cut across.

  28. فحمينا نِساءَ قحطانَ حتَّى

    عادَ دون الفتاةِ سِترٌ يُلَطُّ

    We protected Qaḥṭān's women until

    a screen was again fastened shut before the maiden.

  29. وأرى الأدعياءَ منكمْ غِضاباً

    يا لقحطانَ أكّد السُّخط سخطُ

    I see the false claimants among you angry.

    O Qaḥṭān! Wrath has reinforced wrath.

  30. غضباً فليُضَرَّم الغيظُ في الأح

    شاءِ منكم ما ضرَّمُ النارَ نفطُ

    In anger, let rage blaze in the en-

    trails of you, as naphtha sets fire ablaze.

  31. قُل لقوم وسمتُهُم بهجاء

    لمكاويه في السَّوالف عَلطُ

    Tell a people I have branded with satire,

    whose cautery leaves marks on their necks:

  32. ليكُنْ بعضكم لبعض ظهيراً

    ثم قوموا لسطوتِي حين أسطو

    'Let each of you support the others,

    then rise to meet my onslaught when I strike.

  33. أنا كفءٌ لكم ومالي عليكمْ

    من ظهيرٍ وهل لأقرَعَ مشط

    I am your match, and have against you

    no supporter—does a bald man have a comb?

  34. لسواءٌ إن استمدّ ذليلٌ

    بذليل أو مُدَّ بالماء ثأط

    It is all the same whether a lowly man seeks help

    from another lowly man, or sludge is supplied with water.'

  35. أبلغا خالداً بأنك لا الشت

    م ولا الكَلْمُ في أديمِك عَبْط

    You two, tell Khālid: 'Neither in-

    sult nor wound in your hide is unprovoked.'

  36. قلتُ إذ قيل لي هجاكَ خليقٌ

    غيرُ مستَنكرٍ لعشواء خبط

    I said, when told, 'Khaliq has lampooned you,'

    'Blind stumbling is no surprise from a purblind she-camel.'

  37. مثلهُ في السَّفاه من علقته

    عُقدةٌ لا يحُلُّها عنه نشط

    His equal in folly is one bound by

    a knot no tug can undo for him.

  38. أيمانٌ وتشتُمُ الفرسَ أوْلى

    لك لا يلتقي رُقيُّ وهَبْط

    A Yemeni, and you revile the Persians? Woe

    to you! Ascent and descent do not meet.

  39. لا لعمرُ الألى نفوكَ وقالوا

    قحطبيٌّ مُدَلَّسٌ ما أشطّوا

    No—by the lives of those who disowned you, saying,

    'A falsely passed-off Qaḥṭabī'—they did not go too far.

  40. بل أراهُمْ إذا تدبرت رأيي

    ظلموا في مقالهم وألطّوا

    Rather, when I reflect upon my judgment, I think

    they wronged you in their words and persisted obstinately.

  41. أنتَ لا شك قحطبيٌّ ولكنْ

    لستَ حاشاك قحطبيّاً فقطُّ

    You are certainly a Qaḥṭabī, but

    you are not—heaven forbid!—only a Qaḥṭabī.

  42. بل مِنَ الماءِ كلِّه فيك شوبٌ

    ومن الناس كلهم لك رهطُ

    No: every kind of semen has a mixture in you,

    and among all people you have kin.

  43. ضرْطٌ في قفاك يحسبهُ السا

    معُ ثوباً من الحرير يُعَطُّ

    A fart at your rear, which the lis-

    tener takes for a silken garment being torn.

  44. نِسبةٌ أوْقعتْكَ في بحر هُزءٍ

    أنت فيه مدى الليالي تُغَطُّ

    A lineage has plunged you into a sea of mockery,

    where you are dunked for nights on end.

  45. لكَ منها اسمُها الشنيعُ ولكن

    دون محصُولها زِحامٌ وضغط

    You have its ugly name, but

    between you and its substance lie crowding and squeezing.

  46. فالْهُ عن نِسبةٍ نصيبُكَ منها

    لفظةٌ نِصفُها المُقدَّم قحطُ

    Forget a lineage in which your share

    is a word whose first half is 'drought.'

  47. يا غريبَ التمام كيف أتمَّتْ

    بِك أمٌّ جنينُها الدهرَ سِقط

    O marvel of full-term birth, how did she carry you to term—

    a mother whose fetus was forever miscarried?

  48. لم تكن تُلبثُ الأيورُ جنيناً

    في حشاها إلا مدى ما يُحطُّ

    Penises never let a fetus stay

    in her womb except for the time it took to be dropped.

  49. رُبّ غرمول نائكٍ لم تَهُلْه

    شعراتٌ تلوحُ في استك شُمط

    Many a fucker's great cock was not deterred

    by the gray-flecked hairs showing at your anus.

  50. فانتحَى منك في عجانٍ كأنْ قد

    خَطَّ فيه تلك الغضونَ مَخطُّ

    He drove into your perineum as though

    a ruling stylus had traced those folds upon it.

  51. يا ابنَ تلك التي إذا ما استعفَّت

    هدرتْ في استها شَقائقُ رُقط

    Son of that woman who, whenever she abstained,

    mottled camel-stallions roared inside her anus.

  52. تدفعُ الحاجةُ الخبيثين مِنها

    من مسيل فجعرُها الدهرَ ثلط

    Need drives both foul excretions from her

    through one channel: her shit is always runny dung.

  53. كلما حطّ رحلَهُ بك ضيفٌ

    باتت الليلَ رِجلُها لا تُحَطُّ

    Whenever a guest set down his saddle at your home,

    her leg stayed raised all night.

  54. أُمُّ شيخٍ تُناكُ بين يديه

    حين لا حاجبٌ هناكَ يمُطُّ

    An old man's mother is fucked before his eyes,

    while not an eyebrow there so much as stretches.

  55. ألزم اللّؤمُ أنفك الذُلَّ حتى

    هو سيّانِ ذِلَّةً والمِقَطُّ

    Baseness has bound humiliation to your nose until

    it and the chopping block are equal in abasement.

  56. ذاك تحت المُدى مُذالٌ وهذا

    دُمّل الذلة الذي لا يُبَطُّ

    That lies debased beneath the knives; this

    is the boil of humiliation that is never lanced.

  57. وإذا ما عَراكَ ندمانُ كأسٍ

    لم يشُبْها القِنديدُ والإسفنطُ

    And when a cup-companion comes to you

    whose cup has no qindīd or isfanṭ mixed in,

  58. بتَّ تيساً له قرونٌ عوالٍ

    وهو تيسٌ له نبيبٌ وقَفْط

    you spend the night a goat with towering horns,

    while he is a goat that bleats and mounts.

  59. نِمتَ عن عرسك الحصانِ إلى الصُب

    ح وباتت براكب النيكِ تمطو

    You sleep through your chaste wife's doings until mor-

    ning, while she stretches beneath the rider who fucks her.

  60. تُسمعانِ الأصمَّ صوتين شتَّى

    هي في نخرةٍ وأنت تغطُّ

    You two make the deaf hear two different sounds:

    she is grunting, while you snore.

  61. فتبيتان في فضائح شُنعٍ

    لم يكن ليلُها عليك ليغطو

    You both spend the night in hideous scandals

    whose night could never cover them for you.

  62. هاكها مُؤيِداً هي الدهرَ في وج

    هِكَ وسْمٌ وفي الصحائف خَطُّ

    Take this as reinforcement: forever, on your fa-

    ce it is a brand, and on the pages a written line.

  63. طلعتْ شنطفٌ فقلنا جميعاً

    كيف أصبحت يا فُسا القُنَّبيطِ

    Shanṭaf appeared, and we all said,

    'How are you this morning, you cauliflower fart?'

  64. فأجابت بشرِّ حالٍ فقُلنا

    لمْ فقالتْ خَتنتُ نفسي بِليطِ

    She answered, 'In the worst state.' We asked,

    'Why?' She said, 'I circumcised myself with a reed-splinter.'

  65. أتانيَ أن البيهقي يسُبُّني

    هوتْ أمُّهُ في أيِّ مورطةٍ ورِطْ

    Word reached me that al-Bayhaqī reviles me.

    May his mother fall! Into what a predicament he has fallen!

  66. وأيَّتما بلوى جناهَا لنفسه

    وأيَّتما نُعمى وعافيةٍ غُمِطْ

    What a calamity he has brought upon himself,

    and what blessing and well-being he has scorned!

  67. تعرض لي مُغرىً بخرطِ قتادتي

    وهلْ يؤلم الخرطُ القتادَ إذا خُرِطْ

    He attacks me, eager to strip my thorn-tree,

    but does stripping hurt the thorn-tree when it is stripped?

  68. وما كان ذنبي غير أن سامني استَهُ

    وثفرَ التي يُؤوِي فقلتُ له أمِطْ

    My only fault was that he offered me his anus

    and the vulva of the woman he keeps; I told him, 'Away!'

  69. عليك بأيرٍ غير أيري فإنه

    جوادٌ له من غير طُرزك مرتَبَطْ

    Find a cock other than mine: mine

    is a steed whose tether lies with others, not your sort.

  70. أقولُ لجلَّادٍ عُميرةَ ظالماً

    فإن بساطَ النيكِ للنيكِ قد بُسط

    I tell the man who wrongfully flogs ʿUmayra,

    for the carpet of fucking has been spread for fucking:

  71. عليك أبا إسحاق فاجعلهُ نجعةً

    فإن أبا إسحاق نُجعةُ من قَحِط

    'Seek Abū Isḥāq; make him your pasture,

    for Abū Isḥāq is pasture for one struck by drought.

  72. إذا شئتَ نيكَ البيهقيّ وعِرسهِ

    فلا تتوسلْ بالوسائل واختبط

    If you wish to fuck al-Bayhaqī and his wife,

    seek no intermediary: ask without introduction.

  73. أباحَ الورى حولاءَهُ لا بأُجرة

    سوى أنه شيخٌ إذا خُبِطتْ خُبِط

    He offers his cross-eyed wife to everyone, without charge,

    except that the old man gets pounded whenever she does.

  74. وإن الخفوقَ الطيز تحبُو سِبالُهُ

    حِباءين شتى من خفيقٍ ومن ضَرِط

    His flapping ass bestows on his moustaches

    two different gifts: flapping and farting.

  75. فيقبضُ في عُثنونِه نفحاتِها

    فيا لك من كبش على شكله رُبط

    He catches its wafts in his beard:

    what a ram, tethered to one of his own kind!

  76. يصولُ علينا البيهقيُّ بمذهبٍ

    يرى الظَرفَ فيه بالشطارةِ قد خُلِط

    Al-Bayhaqī attacks us with a doctrine

    in which he thinks wit has been mixed with knavery.

  77. ويُلقَى إلى حُوت استه حوتُ يونسٍ

    وثعبانُ موسى في لِزازٍ فَتَستَرِطْ

    Into the whale of his anus are cast Jonah's whale

    and Moses' serpent together, and it swallows them.

  78. فيا سوأتا للظرفِ والفتكِ أصبحا

    يُناكان في شيخ يُناك لدنُ قُمِطْ

    Oh, the shame of wit and daring: they have come

    to be fucked in an old man fucked since he was swaddled!

  79. وإن ابتذالي فيه شعري لحادثٌ

    تكادُ السموات العُلا منه تنكشِطْ

    My debasing my poetry upon him is such an event

    that the lofty heavens almost peel away at it.

  80. يعيبُ انقباضي مُعجباً بانبساطه

    ومن ينبسطْ للحُرِّ والعبدِ ينبسط

    He faults my reserve, admiring his openness;

    whoever opens himself to freeman and slave is open indeed.

  81. ويزْعُمُني صحَّفْتُ في الشعر كاذباً

    مُلِطَّاً وكم نكَّلتُ من كاذب مُلطّْ

    He falsely claims I misread words in poetry,

    persisting obstinately—how many such liars I have chastised!

  82. فقولا له بِئسَ الجنى ماجَنَيْتَه

    لنفسِك يا ثلطاً جَنيّاً كما ثُلِطْ

    You two, tell him: 'Wretched is the harvest you have reaped

    for yourself, you freshly harvested dung, just as it was shat!

  83. غدا الأسلُ الريانُ همَّك وحدَهُ

    إذا هو للوجعاء منك وقد مُلْط

    The well-watered spear became your only concern,

    when it is for your sore anus, now stripped bare.

  84. وأنت ترى ما يلفظ الناسُ كلهم

    به أسلاً من حُبِّك الأسلَ السَّبطْ

    You take whatever everyone utters

    for spears, so fond are you of the smooth spear.

  85. أيا غلطاً في الخلقِ لا من إلهه

    ولكن من الدهر الذي رُبَّما غَلِط

    O error in creation—not from its God,

    but from Time, which sometimes errs!

  86. أأنت تُغنّي بي وأنت مُعلِّمٌ

    أُشَيْوِهُ مخبولٌ بكُوعكَ تمتخط

    Is it you who sing of me, when you are a schoolmaster,

    a hideous little lunatic, wiping your nose with your wrist?

  87. تراعي سِقاط المنشدين ولا ترى

    سقاط التي أضحت لغيرك تمتشط

    You watch for reciters' omissions, yet do not see

    the miscarriages of her who now combs herself for another.

  88. حليلَتُكَ المشهورُ في الناس أنها

    عمولٌ من الأعمال أحبطَ ما حُبط

    Your wife, of whom it is well known among people

    that she labors at the most futile of deeds,

  89. حُويلاءُ تَزني لا تراقبُ قُبحها

    ولا نَتنَ حشَّيها المجيفينِ والإبِط

    a cross-eyed woman, fornicates, heedless of her ugliness,

    or the stench of her two reeking privy parts and armpit,

  90. ولا خُبث ريحٍ من مبالٍ مُلعَّنٍ

    ولا شعراً في السِّفل والعلو قد شَمِط

    or the foul wind from an accursed piss-hole,

    or the hair above and below that has turned gray,

  91. ولا اللَّهَ بل قد راقبتْ فتأوَّلتْ

    فرِيّاً من التأويل بُوِّل بل ثُلطْ

    or God—indeed, she did consider Him, then devised

    a fabricated interpretation, pissed out—no, shat out!

  92. رأتْ تركها اللذاتِ من خَوفِ ربِّها

    قُنوطاً وأن اللَه إن قَنِطتْ سخِط

    She judged that abandoning pleasure out of fear of her Lord

    was despair, and that God would be angry if she despaired.

  93. فمالتْ مع الراجي الممتِّع نفسَهُ

    ولم تر إعمال القنوطِ مع القَنِط

    So she sided with the hopeful man indulging himself,

    not favoring the practice of despair with the despairing.

  94. عَتِبْتَ عَلينا أن عففنا عن التي

    تؤاجرُها فاستنشق الغيظ واستعِط

    You reproached us for abstaining from the woman

    you hire out; inhale your rage and snuff it up!

  95. لساني حسامٌ قد أجدتُ اختراطَهُ

    عليك ولكن أير غيري فاخترِط

    My tongue is a sword I have expertly unsheathed

    against you; but unsheathe someone else's cock!

  96. فقد سُمتُ أيري نيكَ عِرسكَ جاهداً

    ونيكَكَ يا ابنَ الزانييْن فما نَشِط

    I urged my cock, earnestly, to fuck your wife

    and to fuck you, son of two adulterers, but it had no appetite.

  97. ستضحك من شِعري وأنت معبِّسٌ

    تميَّزُ من غيظٍ عليَّ وتختلط

    You will laugh at my verse even while scowling,

    bursting with rage at me and losing your senses,

  98. كما ضحك البغل المزيَّر إذ لوى

    جحافلَهُ بيْطارُهُ غيرَ مُغتبط

    as the mule restrained with a twitch laughed when its farrier twisted

    its lips, though it took no pleasure in it.

  99. ويعلمُ ذو التمييز أنك مُوجعٌ

    توقَّرَ باديه وخافيه يختلطْ

    Anyone discerning knows that you are in pain,

    outwardly composed, inwardly in turmoil.

  100. هجوتُكَ وغدا يرفعُ الشَتمُ قدرَهُ

    فشعريَ مرحومٌ وأنت الذي غُبطْ

    I lampooned you, a scoundrel whom abuse raises in standing;

    so my verse deserves pity, while you are the one envied.