1. I stayed awake longing for the shining lightning,
Gleaming like Yemeni silk embroidered with silver.

2. It illuminated the dark nights for us, spreading its glow,
Its brilliance returning like hidden white eggs.

3. Its flashes were like the radiance of smiling cheeks
When the jeweled ornaments shine with delight.

4. It reminded me of the bright faces of beautiful maidens
Whose amorous tales I cannot forget.

5. It recalled a wonderful time of youth and health
When my covenant with Layla was still true.

6. Though later she broke her promise and abandoned
Our faithful pact.

7. I was troubled by her, and had it not been for passion,
I would not have been so distressed.

8. When she glanced with her Babylonian eyes,
She increased restlessness and longing in my heart.

9. She came to me full of charm and beauty—
Woe to the ardent lover burned by his desire!

10. When I sought healing from her, her glance
Infected me with an incurable sickness.

11. Had it not been for my love of her, no lightning
Would have struck and flashed so brightly in my love.

12. My tears answered when longing called me,
Though once I was not given to tears.

13. I stood at the ruins and the landmarks did not speak
To one so inflamed, so weeping.

14. I watered its barren soil as though
I spilled tears from my eyes onto it.

15. If you had honored your tears, O my sorrow,
You would have wept for the Fatimid Imam—

16. For the martyred, slain thirstily, so generous
To the thirsty with his weeping eyes.

17. For the shining star of guidance and star of knowledge,
The peak of glorious nobility.

18. For the defender of the heights of Islam,
Hero of the sword and open-handed knight.

19. For the vast sea—when disasters and sorrows
Afflicted him—of generosity and bounty.

20. For the most noble and blessed of mankind
In face, hand, and honor in rivalry.

21. For the best of all who worked in life—
His father and mother—and the purest being.

22. Though by force and fraud with sharpened swords
They drove him from the rights of the caliphate,

23. They did not push him from his noble lineage
Nor his agreeable character and virtue.

24. Truly they broke the bonds of Islam by their crime
Beginning with Hussein and his father Ali.

25. The day of Karbala matched the day of Badr
By taking vengeance on the Prophet’s kin.

26. With the Imam they went astray, though he was not
As misguided as they toward the Trustee of God.

27. They cast him out of hard, cruel hearts
With the tips of sharp tongues and swords.

28. They surrounded him with animosity
And attacked him from all sides with crookedness.

29. With every polished Indian scimitar and spear,
Sirjani armor and Saburi shields.

30. They rushed in haste with their swords
Upon the innocent, the son of the innocent.

31. Faces of fire frowned down
Upon the radiant, crescent-moon-like face.

32. What an Imam they drowned in blood
With canes of rosewood and ebony!

33. The earth wept in reverence and sorrow
For his death, and even the poisonous beasts.

34. The tents were left undefended, with none
To battle for them, no guardian, no protector.

35. The tyrants had no pity for the helpless girl
Nor the infant son.

36. They showed no mercy to the frightened,
Nor quenched the thirsty with pure water.

37. They felt no shame to spare a chaste woman's honor,
No nobility or gallantry.

38. By force and oppression they drove the people of truth
To the dirty pool.

39. Spear points pushed them away like shepherds’ sticks
Driving cattle from the watering place.

40. The noble ones of Quraysh were taken captive,
Paraded on camelback.

41. Oh what sorrow when the Prophet heard
The news of his family’s doom!

42. Though had he wished for life he would have survived,
As al-Mudarraj survived his fatal wounds.

43. But death in the whitest silks was more fitting
For one so righteous and devoted.

44. O bonds of those gone astray! How could you turn
From your straight path so perversely?

45. You left your pledge, made so recently,
Behind you, betraying the Prophet's covenant.

46. You hid your hypocrisy until you could pounce
Like a cunning wolf.

47. You revealed your grudges and returned
To the ancient, ignorant ways.

48. Had it not been for your resentments, you would not
Have oppressed the Prophet’s kin for strangers.

49. It is sorrow enough that you sanctioned the murder
Of Hussein for prizes of white silver.

50. And you sold your religion for this fleeting world,
So worthless.

51. It will suffice tomorrow when his father is your adversary
To reveal the healthy from the sick.

52. You denied his party tyrannically even as you
More deserved of hellfire's roasting.

53. You forbade water to him out of cruelty,
Though common people quenched their thirst.

54. You watered your steeds but deprived him
Of pleasant draughts.

55. At Siffin you opposed his father, turning
From the clear truth.

56. You deceived your leader, committing
An outrageous and deceitful crime.

57. A leader who would dispense justice in all cases
And assist the weak against the mighty.

58. You denied the report of the returning sun,
And suppressed the story of al-Tuyi.

59. For your hatred of Ali you condemned him
To eternal torment in the pit of hell.

60. I will send my greetings of peace
To the Imams, and the choicest presents of my praise—

61. Greetings that I will follow with supplication
At those tombs, beseeching the Guardians.

62. And I will clothe the shoulders of time in verses
Like a flowing mantle of wisdom.

63. Out of goodwill, seeking only
To displease every hostile dissenter.

64. Whose perfume, when diffused, lingers
Like the scent of musk released by the wind.

65. Like the breath of the morning breeze flowing by night
Stirring the blossoms on the bough.

66. Greetings to Taybah, Bakka, and Karbala;
To Samarra, Fayd, and Gharra.

67. To the land of Iraq and Tus,
Watered from a distant, holy place.

68. May God give life to one who visits those
White-domed tombs in virtuous devotion,

69. Sending blessings toward them at dawn and dusk.
They are a treasure for the hereafter, by which one can know

70. The fortunate from the doomed.
Knowing them suffices me—I who will return

71. As their enemy in life, but their friend in death.