1. أَبلِغ هَوازِنَ أَعلاها وَأَسفَلَها

    أَن لَستُ هاجِيَها إِلّا بِما فيها

    Tell Hawazin, its highest and its lowest,

    that I lampoon it only for the faults it has.

  2. قَبيلَةٌ أَلأَمُ الأَحياءِ أَكرَمُها

    وَأَغدَرُ الناسِ بِالجيرانِ وافيها

    A tribe whose noblest is the basest of the living,

    and whose faithful one is the most treacherous of people toward neighbors;

  3. وَشَرُّ مَن يَحضُرُ الأَمصارَ حاضِرُها

    وَشَرُّ بادِيَةِ الأَعرابِ باديها

    and its townsman is the worst of all who dwell in towns,

    and its nomad is the worst of the nomadic Arabs.

  4. تَبلى عِظامُهُمُ إِمّا هُمُ دُفِنوا

    تَحتَ التُرابِ وَلا تَبلى مَخازيها

    Their bones decay when they are buried

    beneath the earth, but its disgraces never decay.

  5. كَأَنَّ أَسنانَهُم مِن خُبثِ طِعمَتِهِم

    أَظفارُ خاتِنَةٍ كَلَّت مَواسيها

    Their teeth, from the foulness of their food, seem like

    the fingernails of a female circumciser whose razors have grown blunt.