1. Do you think there is any comfort in the north, all-encompassing?
Do you think it is an intoxication that drags its skirts?

2. It spread the dew of its breath, as though
It spread out pouring tears profusely.

3. Or whenever the noble one took wing, it breathed
A breath that lures him to me, sick.

4. Your missives float open, yet
The vigilance of eyes is of no use as a wick.

5. Do not close off the gaze of acceptance, for perhaps
It would fold its dripping wing over it.

6. It's as though some phantom found its way, so you
Sent forth the repelling musk from your pockets as a substitute.

7. I will frighten off whatever your robes contain, even if
The tongues become, because of that, curses.

8. I disobey the spears of satire unless through you, my standard,
And I obey within you nonsense and fervor.

9. I do not excuse the sharp sword that hurts your father or
Sets souls astray or rallies remnants.

10. What are landmarks and hills for, have not
Lovers been enough as landmarks and hills?

11. It’s as though we, the gathering of tears, parted
And as though we, the secret of farewell, wavered.

12. And I have blamed my short night in passion
And praised the long course of the canal.

13. My ambition will bring me praises
That arose and set the stars to setting.

14. The dew complained against the tender sprouts of Adhri’a
That grow towards it greenery and meadows.

15. O you, if their glory should fade away
Take unto yourself the Nile and the winding!

16. O you, were it not for the audacious efforts
They would not claim your glorious father insane.

17. We will be supported by generosity against her
Who leaves the gathered cloud stingy.

18. And thinks our swords amid our revelry
And imagines the crown of the glorious a foal.

19. This son of the inspiration of God whose guidance
The angels take from him morning and evening.

20. He of the Light to whom Hashim’s virtues bowed down
Thankfully, like his abundant gifts, abundantly.

21. There is no day like his days in which
He guides the exegetes’ minds.

22. In the season of meaningful pilgrimage I like
To glance away from its radiance for a little while,

23. As the air stumbles over the tongues and the oryx,
And the earth quakes and tilts to one side,

24. As thepartridges above the plain are as though
They attempted by the presses to warble,

25. As the lionesses bare their teeth
And fate bewails its ravaged corpse,

26. As the sun lowers its veil, and its affection -
If able, it would kiss it.

27. As above the Commander of the Faithful is a cloud
That arose shading his crown, shading,

28. That was weighed down with the heaviness of pearls, its flimsy weave,
So it poured over him, bowing.

29. Does its rain come from where his house is
To compete around his feet with Gabriel?

30. His processions startled the mountains, so their
Plateaus proclaimed the declaration of God’s greatness and praise,

31. The mud caked between his lower legs, yet you do not see
Between his shin and heel any cracks.

32. Carpets were raised over him the likes of which were never
Tents amid the grounds of the sanctuary and camels.

33. The panels of embellished gold paneling fluttered,
Amidst which doves that did not coo.

34. And it comes into contact with the celestial sphere, as though
It means to soar with them to the heavens.

35. The beasts of prey draw near to it, each cautious lion
Swooping down when the steed gallops.

36. The brown-skinned mares recognize around it
Lineage and do not recognize a blue-eyed or chestnut horse.

37. And every muscular young ostrich takes from it
A lion, and each limb bears an elephant.

38. You’d think it was disheveled from its great size
And imagine it dusty from sallying forth.

39. Its two sides the lightning embellishes with gleaming
Flashes, and they can belong to their mothers.

40. It takes the dusk, necklaced,
And comes preceding a mottled racetrack.

41. This which filled hearts with majesty,
This which left the mighty humiliated.

42. So when you look, you look at a peerless one,
Save the jostling of the banners and soldiers.

43. If you glance back, at croups and hips,
Or listen, to murmurs and neighing,

44. A day on which God manifested Himself from His dominion
And saw you in the magnificent view, magnificent.

45. You were resplendent in it with a glance, so you granted it
A gaze, while busy with seeing others, distracted.

46. The world was adorned with its two tear-shaped pearls
So I saw it as an insignificant thing next to you.

47. And I noticed your towering pulpit quaking
Beneath the arch of the two banners, tremendous.

48. The veil of majesty you address was lowered
So you removed the coverings of rhetoric.

49. You performed the hajj of the year renewing, though you had
Farewelled a year for jihad, deferring.

50. You interceded for the delegation of pilgrims as though
You volunteered them your accepted loyalty.

51. You approached the violators with gifts
That shook the hips of generosity, stirring.

52. Those sins and desires only came together
So that you could pardon, able, and allow.

53. You were generous until Umayya hoped for you
A bowstring, if it did not fail.

54. Wondrous is your decorated sword, how the selves
Did not flow from it, pouring.

55. The despot of kings did not mention it
Save to tumble in blood, slain.

56. It is as though the souls of enemies modeled it
For when it calls the ambitious one answers impetuously.

57. And when its lightning illuminates, a hero sees
Images of events above it, imagining.

58. And when one reflects upon it, reflects upon a cause
For flashes and a lightning bolt, twisted.

59. Its beauty is donned, its splendor
Bent over, and its glow, poured out.

60. The foreigner wrote some of your attributes upon it
So I recognized upon it the crown and wreath.

61. He nearly warned with threats because of how long
He listened to you and knew the interpretation.

62. So if you get angry at him, beneath you is a wide expanse
To which the edge of day is like night.

63. And if you bury it in acceptance, it guides
Toward the sun at noon pure and burnished.

64. Your grandfather named it Dhu l-Faqar, but rather
Those who opposed you named it Azrael.

65. It is as though through it no single string was left
In Karbala, nor blood, spilled.

66. Or have you not heard of its events that
Left no association or change?

67. The caravans of poems marched about it dispersed,
As though they were coursing water and floods.

68. Until they cut through to Iraq from Damascus concerning
Honor, while the Nile carved into the Euphrates.

69. They rose over Baghdad with triumphs
You launched over them as deceits and camels.

70. My thoughts rave if they do not hear
Their sharp swords’ jingling.

71. And I had intended to unbind its fetters
When I saw the benefactors few.

72. Until I saw my poems rendered prose
And speech about the Mother of the Book, spoken.

73. And if I remain, I will vacate for its love
My field of mastery, shortening and lengthening,

74. Until it is as though I am inspired and as though they
Are verses I intone, intoning.

75. I was alarmed by what I saw, so those
Well-trained, eloquent ones retreated in defeat.

76. I saw you not with a reverent glance,
Yet I found you an understood essence.

77. I did not hear you, my hearing in awe,
But I found you a heard reality.

78. O erectors of prophecy, shall we presume an aim
And speak about you other than what was said?

79. He who is wise of you was more certain of your manners
Of the unseen, so he sent down about you distinction.

80. The spirit gave you what it did not give
Any human, and carried out through you favoritism.

81. We received your pillar, and you drew near
Until you received His upheld Throne.

82. So you connected what was between us, and its proof
Extended to you a cause with it connected.

83. Why are your branches not thriving?
You have been rooted firmly in the heavens, rooted!

84. The scenting of noses gave you peering ahead,
And you rode upon the back of time subdued.

85. You immortalized in the Abbasids a curse
Created though they were not created for its hastening.

86. Their lightnings herded them about you as though
You stripped them amidst the clouds, bared.

87. Those whom they assume the leadership would be from them,
If their lineages were investigated, investigating,

88. From a house whose people did not attain their goal
From the virtuous, so they substituted it for the flawed!

89. Do not hurry, I have seen your composure
A heavy tread upon the bow of time.

90. The ornamented caliphs rule them, though
Destiny is capable of what it wills.

91. Or else the books, were it not that they testify for you,
Their signs would not be separated, separating.

92. May God reward you, whom He did not reward
For guiding the ignorant stray.

93. You honored His covenant, and you were its confidant, who
Took the Book and His entrusted pledge.

94. Until, when the matter of His servants preoccupied you,
He summoned your father Abraham.

95. From between the veils of Light, where
Your forefathers dwelt in the shade of gardens.

96. He carried out his trust, and was increased in acceptance
Nearness, so the God dwelt near him, intimate.

97. You inherited the proof, elucidation, and
The Criterion, Torah, and Gospel.

98. You knew from the confidences of God’s knowledge what
He did not give Gabriel or Michael.

99. If you were to be sent as a prophet,
The early generations would be revived by your mission!

100. Or if you were Noah, warning among his people,
His prayers would not increase their misguidance!

101. For God you have an intimacy which if announced
Would revive by your mention a slain killer.

102. If He had given the creation what He gave you,
He would not have created likening and exemplifying.

103. If not for a veil, limiting your knowledge,
They would have found a way to the unseen.

104. If not for you, contemplation would not be preaching
Nor reason, proper guidance, nor analogy, proof.

105. If you were not the cause of salvation for its people,
The faith of worshippers would not avail a wick.

106. If you did not make known to us our souls’ essence,
To us it would be an unknown world.

107. If a grant were not overflowing to you in the wilderness,
The treed gardens would be empty.

108. If you were not the dweller of the lands, they would quake
And its pillars would be demolished, demolishing.

109. If there were not in you a lesson for mankind,
They would stray, and evidence would not be evidence.

110. Awaken in us some power to enrage the enemy,
For time has frowned upon us, frowning.

111. If you were before, unite us
Nothing of our sanctity would have been attained, attained.

112. We consider the easiest you possess our necks
And the least we hope in you, hoped for.