1. They ask me, "What have you read? Perhaps
They will hit upon some knowledge to heal

2. The ills of the people of the earth?" So I bow
My head awhile, then lift my chin,

3. Relating tidings I do not fully grasp.
I turn the talk to peace, announcing good news,

4. And rave about fire and blood, lamenting.
I used to think reason would guide the blind,

5. But me and my reason today I see no guide.
Woe to you if as a writer you believe people

6. And hope in them for truth's sake as a transmitter!
I see pages that falsely slander

7. What's in them, shaming eyes that read.
Written with pens whose spittle

8. Is like snakes' venom, leaving gashes bloody.
They brandish them, and faces turn yellow, withdrawing

9. In fear, people who dread calamities.
When they hurl them into countries seeking

10. To force us into prolonged estrangement,
If they lack a fitting response,

11. They make their steeds the roaming winds.
These black events deluded our people,

12. Leaving their writers hostile and vengeful.
I see them all equal, no distinction between them,

13. And the eye will not discern what was hidden.
We know the outward aspect of affairs,

14. Glory to Him who knows the essence of secrets!
I've seen war criminals never tiring of it

15. Or seeking respite from it for an instant.
They clamor that its setbacks have hit them

16. When they themselves brought the causes and occasions.
Greed of people who, if they could, would find

17. A ladder to climb up to the Seven Heavens!
Shepherds who do not respect God's sanctity

18. Or know the truth save through empty claims.
They flung the world's masses into turbulent blood

19. Where death flows crimson, covering everything.
O kings of hellfire, the whole world

20. Appeals to you regarding those ruined covenants.
O guardians of peace, if only we could see

21. Some protector of peace come from the invaders!
Enough—what's hit the doomed, the bereft,

22. The anguished souls is painful to retell.
I fear for the fate of realms since I see

23. War only escalating, not drawing to an end.
It has wrapped itself in black winding-sheets as though

24. To atone for sins or pull down firmaments.
I never feared it would be four,

25. But now I fear the four will become eight!
As if red deaths have allied as a band

26. Of Goliaths to leave no one alive.
They blame him for shaking the land with his might

27. And spilling blood over its regions and outskirts.
Did they suppose they'd never taste

28. His torment for the burden of their disobedience?
He threw them, so they said, “What an aggression!

29. What a tyrant on earth, abusive and harsh!”
The means of death all obeyed him

30. When Azrael stood to call, attending.
He walks in their footsteps whenever he shifts,

31. Driving detachments and troops invading.

32. He went, subduing regions by force, a conqueror,
Like your stringing verses' rhyming finale.

33. We still fight our enemies seeking
To cure the pain since we're sick of medicine.

34. Their white swords have exacted our right,
Though we didn't used to seek retaliation.

35. If we're patient regarding rights, roused is
Othman's sword that dislikes acquiescence.

36. Night's defender—still when darkness looms
We curb its excesses and tempests.

37. He restores its forbearance and dignity
When rejection drives it to foolish extremes.

38. We prepare when war looms stark naked
And store for the hostile foe an unleashed sword.

39. An army whose genuine valor has a redoubt
That bows down before the highest redoubts.

40. When the night of clanging arms grows dark, you see him
Cleave through the hostile foe and pitch blackness.

41. We surged into panic and met the foe,
And its lords and loyalists met with us.

42. Ask the Russians and allies what they met—
Do they own anything today but lament?

43. We split their alliance when they grouped
Wanting a caliphate exalted on high.

44. Deception's caller lured them on, so they came
Wishing for delusions the soul fancies.

45. Their fleet collided; then burst forth
Towers pouring lethal red-hot lava,

46. While others, like volcano mouths, spewed
Thunderbolts over the land and open country,

47. And lightning roared out of cloud banks
Spreading a secret message of sudden death.

48. Some of them sought refuge on the island's edges,
Arriving from Hell in a pack.

49. Thus we drive away all tyrants
Invading the sovereigns' realm offending.

50. By your life, our soldiers never cease
Responding to war's summons calling them near.

51. They block breaches in earth, seizing discord,
Crowding the sky's space like predatory eagles,

52. Then roam the darkness seeking their prey
To ambush the lovely hostage there.