Shorter Pieces of Arabian Poetry: Epigram On Ebn Naphta-Wah, by Mohammed Ben Zeid Almotakalam

EPIGRAM ON EBN NAPHTA-WAH. BY MOHAMMED BEN ZEID ALMOTAKALAM. [IN order to understand Ben Zeid's Charade. we must remark that, in Arabic, Naphta signifies a combustible not very much unlike our gunpowder, and that Wah is an exclamation of sorrow.] BY the former with ruin and death we are curst; In the latter we grieve for the ills of the first; And as for the whole where together they meet, It's a drunkard, a liar, a thief, and a cheat.