Rashidi

You say my verse lacks salt -- perhaps it's true,
My verse is sweet as sugar-cane and honey
And salt should not be added to these two.
Look, pimp -- salt's good for beans and turnip stew,
The kind of muck served up as verse by you.

"Borrowed Ware: Medieval Persian Epigrams"
Translated by Dick Davis
Persian calligraphy by Amir Hossein Tabnak
1997, Mage Publishers

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