«قَدْ عَدَلَ الدَّهْرُ بَيْنَنَا فَأَنَا نَظِيرُهُ فِي الشَّقَاءِ وَهُوَ أَنَا»
Fate has made us equal—equally miserable.
The opening appears to praise justice, but the next words define the equality as shared misery. “Fate treated us kindly” would erase the ironic reversal. The speaker's comparison makes the parties almost interchangeable in suffering.
“Equally miserable” carries the twist compactly. Because the later disclosure exposes the staged case, the hardship described here remains part of the litigants' rhetorical plea, not a fact the court had already verified.
Translation exercise
Read “justice” against the following words and locate the irony.