1. The wing of night fell dark and still,
My bed lay perfumed, my pillow fulfilled,

2. So I greeted the specter of dreams like a vision
Veiled atop a royal dome revealed,

3. Nothing stirred but the swaying palms,
My tresses strewn, my garb’s folds steeled,

4. A rent through the lion’s jaw his feeding place,
Among the dunes his claws steeled.

5. Whenever death’s vultures alight,
Naught remains but bleached skulls peeled.

6. Swooping down to the watering holes
Where only the antelope skulls are peeled.

7. An army surging on its tapes,
Its vanguard mailed and shields steeled,

8. At Metha its steeds drinking wine whenever
A stream through its midst spilled.

9. The rose thus rendered vermillion,
As if blood-smeared necks filled.

10. If this beauty verses illumined,
You inspired, the full moon copied.

11. I lost you, sun beyond a cloud,
And heaven, beyond the isthmus yonder.

12. If I complain of anguish once known,
Like embers in your cheeks angered.

13. Oh trouble me not with events renewed,
My spirit repels events hardened!

14. So boast not of days that made me lowly
When my fortune is great, I’ll be haughty!

15. Destiny aids his purpose fulfilled,
Praised in the seven oft repeated.

16. Wait, his vengeance is not swift,
Nor can revelation be repealed.

17. Yours is the land, not the heirs’ to claim
You summoned mankind, they came and were ruined

18. You donned the crown ere it was time
So reason’s grey satisfied your rule.

19. Your views were yours, no tomorrow in them,
No glimmer of verses probed.

20. No veil obscures the unseen from them,
But a sanctity within composed.

21. Over the sun, below the moon they loom,
And when withered, stars cluster pulverized.

22. The armada sailed seeking the scent
Of my braids, wild with joy for this ode of mine.

23. As lighting flickers in lightning’s sight,
It meets the gale from the wind’s mouth blown.

24. You command god’s armies raging at injustice,
Their heavenly general in them imbued.

25. An ocean swallowing their clouds entire
Would pass as billows cleaved in two.

26. You see dawn beneath a starry night,
As if in mourning, blackened pitch imbued.

27. For them a roar to shake mountains in their peaks,
And thunder to pierce hearing, leaving it mute.

28. The roar of lions stretching in their plains,
The neigh of steeds in ravines crying aloud.

29. They gore each burst of sparks,
Though but embers, they are fires stoked.

30. Ripping through the scabbard’s hem, their kindling
As the bristled serpent in blazing noon scorched.

31. To each champion’s joints overborne,
At each crown of the head maces clocked.

32. News travelled with tidings that make
A child turn grey and a deaf man hear.

33. The idols roared, their clamor
An echo of Marwan’s clan, distraught.

34. O Hashimites, who but you mastered
An age of disgrace, its nights transfixed?

35. You came in the wake of dissolution, boundaries open,
You brought the horizon near, the miles annexed.

36. Whenever Uthman’s cauldrons foamed,
You were lions, the unknown your prey ravaged.

37. You hunted the beasts of earth in every battle,
As if Qanas in them, boiling pots cracked.

38. You guided them, each tyrant,
Armored steeds scornful, lavish with all they had.

39. Not lazy colts, or skittish fillies,
Or lumbering pack animals overburdened.

40. If hardship shook them, it was as
A captive, like a slave, eyes downcast.

41. Abundant in beauty, watering channels
But amongst boulders lodged.

42. Safe from the mischief of spying eyes,
Anointed, purified, and scoured.

43. A band who lost the guide, you guided aright,
You cleared the fog, and they were confounded.

44. By my life, though Quraysh claimed excellence,
We found the musk essence in you implanted.

45. You counseled kings of East and West with wisdom
Each saw and heard from you though partially blind and deaf.

46. Tell me, which water most generous?
Which of God's mountains in earth most anchored?

47. True guidance and refuge you were
Before faces were blotted out and stamped.

48. Helper of guidance, God's pool of intercession
Cascading beneath the throne, fresh and renewed.

49. You slaked thirst, no craving soul before you
Nor ancient pact to be undone.

50. Firm in your crown's covenant, your might fulfilled,
In both horizons' kingdom timeless.

51. Where do you fear for a breach uncompelled
When your steeds in Karhiya's plains roam unleashed?

52. You've overwhelmed India's kings and Sind's,
Nights their elephants like camels knelt.

53. You've set them afire, and it is fire - not that
Kindled a thousand years, and left a husk.

54. If religion now takes them suddenly
It is the grasp of lightning in the clouds cracked.

55. Portents of victory or hovering angels?
Horizons or a heaven knocking?

56. Cold has not reached you, though pure your aim,
But gales bursting, tearing away.

57. You traveled, leaving stars behind
Like verdant meadows, blessed and ample.

58. Say to Thursday's feast, your standard
Is victory's, refreshing, so emerge!

59. Clasp me to them though factions intervene,
Their drinking cups replenished and brimming.

60. Elders who have tied the bond of peace,
Youths who roar when plied in combat.

61. How excellent the precincts of faith that join them,
For we saw the circle of life completing.

62. Comport yourself virtuously and the lamb will bear
Young, horns bud, after that, sprout.