1. Shall I water Nimr's camels, then delight in that,
While your abodes—O House of the Messenger—are desolate?

2. You are as the decree of fate has scattered you, not
As I wished, settled in comfort and security.

3. At the Euphrates' water you are kept from drinking
While cattle owned by the traitors drink their fill.

4. Some of you live in misery, driven to beg
As though to the onlookers they are in luxury.

5. Truly the day of al-Taff wrung hearts with anguish
And seared hearts that have no remedy for their pain.

6. For the woes of the age are many indeed,
And in many an affliction there is no comfort.

7. I see a humiliation among us—so where is its dawn?
And ills piled on ills—so where is the cure?

8. Between us are estranged hearts that would be soothed
If only they were given respite and relief.

9. So blame not my tears or denounce my agony,
For from you I have naught but yearning and weeping.

10. Is there any consolation for me, when the House of Muhammad
Wander dispossessed, with none to give them shelter?

11. From the meadows they are barred, their mounts denied access,
While others are left to graze, enjoying the herbage.

12. It is as if they were a people not of Muhammad's line
Or of his followers—nay, rather his foes!

13. O stars that guide by Allah's light though the ignorant
Are oblivious—the House of Muhammad is to Paradise

14. What their enemies are to Hellfire!
Let dawn upon your horizon and evening soothe

15. My sorrowful heart that stirs again within me.
These tears that pour from my eyes flow not from their rims

16. But drip from my heart—so in truth they are blood.
Without you life is but misery and torment;

17. No good is there in it. Survival would be extinction.
If you knew hardship in this world, then only

18. Would my joy be whole if you did not share the hardship.
May Allah curse a people who did not repay your kindness,

19. Though you were gracious and they did evil!
When disaster strikes they have no champion

20. To rise and face the trial—no requital at all!
Allah watered high dunes that loom over you

21. And still pours down on them from rainclouds, abundant.
Toward them the clouds proceed and in their wake

22. Roll thunderclaps from the bellowing gloom.
As if, by their valleys, the quickening winds had breathed

23. Into them an undying moan and rumbling.
And whomsoever is quenched honourably in Paradise

24. Is not touched by the downpour of the rainclouds.