ومضطغن على الألباب قاس

يرى ويقول بالرأي القديم

And a rancorous man, harsh toward minds,

holds and professes the ancient doctrine.

يحدِّث عن أب فأب مجوس

إلى هابيل كالليل البهيم

He speaks on the authority of father after father, all Magians,

back to Abel, like the pitch-black night.

أبوه أخوه وهو أخو بنيه

ولا السّيْرانِ قدَّا من أديم

His father is his brother, and he is his sons' brother;

nor were the two thongs cut from one hide.

له في النور والظلمات عقد

بطيء الحل ممنوع الأديم

He has a knot of belief in light and darkness,

slow to unravel, its surface unassailable.

تخير من أديم الحزن أرضاً

عذاة الترب طيبة الأروم

He carefully chose a plot from the surface of rugged land,

sweet in soil, wholesome in its roots.

وعَرَّش فوقنا فالطرف فيها

يسير على صراط مستقيم

And he raised a trellis above us; there the gaze

travels along a straight path.

وحصَّنها بعيدان طوال

وزينها بقضبان الكروم

And he fortified it with tall poles,

and adorned it with vine shoots.

وحاز لها من الأنهار فحلاً

فأهداها إلى كفؤ كريم

And he secured for her a stallion from the rivers,

then bestowed her on a noble, fitting mate.

فأولدها بنين ولم تخنه

وَرُبَّتَ لائم فيها مليم

So he made her bear sons, and she did not betray him;

and many a man who blames her is himself to blame.

وأقبل ربها يسعى إليها

ضحى في سمت لقمان الحكيم

And her master came hurrying toward her,

in midmorning, with the bearing of Luqman the Wise.

فأبصر غِلمة كالصبح بيضاً

لهن وغلمة مثل الصريم

Then he saw boys as white as dawn,

belonging to them, and boys like the pitch-dark night.

فصعر خده غضباً عليها

وزناها ببهتان عظيم

So he turned his cheek away in anger at her,

and accused her of adultery with a terrible slander.

قضى بسواد ذا وبياض هذا

كما ولد الصبيح من الدميم

He judged by this one's blackness and that one's whiteness,

just as the handsome is born of the ugly.

فقال جزى العواهر ما جزاها

وسمن كل جانية ظلوم

Then he said, 'May harlots be requited as they have been,

and may every sinful, unjust woman be fattened!

ألم ترضين أن تزنين حتى

تَماريتُن في علم النجوم

Was adultery not enough for you, that you even

disputed over the science of the stars?'

وجرَّد مدية كالماء أبقت

على أوداجها أثر الكلوم

And he drew a knife like water, which left

on her jugular veins the marks of wounds.

فما أرعى على أم ثكول

ولا أبقى على ولد يتيم

He showed no mercy to a bereaved mother,

nor spared an orphaned child.

وجاء بهن أمثال السبايا

على لونين من حبش وروم

And he brought them like female captives,

in two colors, Abyssinian and Roman.

فداس بطونهن بِرَكْل علج

أشق كظل شيطان رجيم

Then he trampled their bellies with the kicks of a foreign brute,

tall and lanky, like the shadow of an accursed devil.

فسالت بالدم الأنهار حتى

تركن القاع أحمر كالديم

And the rivers flowed with blood, until

they left the flat ground red as the steady rains.

ولما أن قضى الأوطار منها

وميزت الدماء من اللحوم

And when he had fulfilled his desires with her,

and the blood had been separated from the flesh,

أشار بحسها لتزيد غماً

على ما حملته من الغموم

he called for her slaying, to add sorrow

to the sorrows she had borne.

فأودعها من المغشى سموماً

تطابق تحت أعراق النجوم

So he deposited in her poisons from what was covered,

layered beneath the roots of the stars.

فوافاها من النجدين شيخ

ترى ما لا ترى عين النديم

Then an old man came to her from the two uplands;

you see what the drinking companion's eye cannot see.

فقص عليه قصة ما أجابت

وقال ولم تدعها كالهشيم

Then he told him a story; she gave no answer,

and said, 'Why leave her like dry chaff?

حلفت لنشربن دم الزواني

وننتصرنّ للدين القديم

I have sworn: we shall surely drink the adulteresses' blood,

and surely avenge the ancient faith.'

وفض الختم عن صافي الْحُمَيّا

ورد الطين في داني النسيم

And he broke the seal from the pure, heady wine,

and returned the clay to the breeze's reach.

ولما ذاقها والطعم مر

وقوس الظهر ظاهرة الوضوم

And when he tasted it, its flavor bitter,

and his back's bow had its supports plainly showing,

أعادت سِنه جَذَعاً وردت

ضراءة ذلك العظم الرميم

she made his years a youngling's again, and restored

the vigor of that crumbling bone.

وجازته عن السوءَى بحسنى

فيا للّه للطبع الكريم

And she repaid him for evil with good—

O God, what a noble nature!

وفتيان كمجتمع الثريا

على طرف من العيش الرخيم

And young men like the clustered Pleiades,

with a share of life's gentle ease:

يساقيهم من الفتيان أحوى غضيـ

ـض الطرف ذو كشح هضيم

a dark-eyed youth among the young men shares cups with them, with downcast

eyes and a slender waist.

تنادوا للمدام وعنفوني

وقالوا هاك حظك من نعيم

They called one another to wine and rebuked me,

and said, 'Take your share of bliss!'

فقلت أخاف عقباها ولكن

أشيعكم إلى باب الجحيم[

So I said, 'I fear its aftermath, but

I will see you off to the gate of Hell.'