May 30, 2026

Bad connection

Al-Farazdaq asked ‘Umar ibn Yazid al-Usaydi to send him some qat, and what he received was not to his liking. On meeting him again, the poet said (meter: basīṭ):

      Attention, ‘Umar ibn Yazid! I'm a guy who[se poetry]
          cauterizes madmen on their occiputs.
      May the quivering crop of your garden plots
          blossom with donkey dicks!
      May each engorged prick rearing up from the soil
          be bound into sheaves of dicks!

From the Collected Poems of al-Farazdaq