1. O son of Hussein, how often you answered my voice and listened to my words.
With you the times were radiant, but today are the nights of separation.

2. I have lost the arrows of its plains and generosity with you, my mountain peak of mountains.
The weary used to seek the shade of your shadows, but today there are no more shadows.

3. You were righteous to all, a father to elder and youth and children.
But today the flock is lost without a shepherd, the rope is cut after connection.

4. Neither the noble thorn trees nor the water, even the water is not fresh.
The land is not the land, and the world is not what I knew in bygone times.

5. You were the crescent for its glory and magnanimity, but today its sunrise has no crescent.
A towering mountain cracked after erecting such great heights.

6. If they carry you to the tomb, for long you carried their heavy loads.
Or if they bury you, not in disgrace - but the soil is the destination of all that falls.

7. A root from which Adam rose and bent back after roaming far and wide.
After riches you lie in a hole in the soil while time makes all things cheap.

8. If it were other than you we would not weep - we weep for the past that is without parallel.
Life's end is annihilation while we spend our days in slumber and fancy.

9. The youth desires longevity but destinies ever govern hopes.
We seek from the Lord of Time wellbeing - a wellbeing that will know no end.

10. It is the way of days to dress and then strip the cloak they loaned.
Life is but a day, sleep but an awakening, and we flit between like fanciful specters.

11. By God, o grave of the jurist Muhammad - do you know the answer to my question?
By God, o grave of the jurist Muhammad - what have you done with his shining face?

12. If I could buy your soil for its weight in gold and silver I would do so.
If I had any say I would bury you in the courtyard and make the house of milk your limbs.

13. What loss is there in a horse's death - but in a man dies men.
In your absence the land lies fallow and countless things are made unlawful.

14. The nights in all of Tihama have gone on far too long though they were never overlong.
Destitution has come to the houses - no more houses. And gone is one who was once wealth to the impoverished.

15. He who would freely give drinks and guide the lost.
My yearning for you extends to all of Egypt - elder, middle-aged, and young.

16. The books and papers yearn, the seekers of solutions yearn when solutions are gone.
My son Hussein, may you be comforted for Muhammadʼs loss - says the true believer, not the frozen stream.

17. The Prophet died though he was the perfect exemplar, as did his companions the elect and Family.
If that consecrated one is taken from you, are you not to God substitutes?

18. If a mountain collapses, which of its sons and the sons of his father are loftier mountains?
The secret in you remains unchanged though you ever meet the lionʼs nature in your cubs.

19. Fifty of the House of Husayn lead them - while one man faces the threats without care.
With God must we seek refuge - no, with God must we seek victory. Steadfast in facing terrors.

20. ʻAli remains for you, as does his sword and helper of trailing robes.
And may God have mercy on those now gone and grant you long life before the gales of the north.