1. Your gaze, is it a blade drawn from a sword sheath?
And your cheek, is it a perfume pouch of musk?

2. And the willowy bending of your form, is it a tender branch?
In which a zephyr stirs and your side sways?

3. Nothing rends the robe of beauty but meadow saffron.
With your cheeks a sword is sheathed, with your glances its sharp edges.

4. Between them I see arenas for lovers.
For blood has dyed them crimson, like unsheathed blades.

5. Does not the secret of love reveal itself when jealousy
Keeps watch, though modesty has not been compromised by you?

6. A night whose darkness is embroidered with stars
As if the Pleiades were strung upon it on a thread.

7. We walked about the tents and their folk
Like a pilgrim circumambulating the Kaaba unseen.

8. Whenever eyes spied on us, we would avert our own,
Though their pupils brimmed with perdition.

9. So we betrayed the redness of cheeks, but they
Yellowed our complexions with your blows.

10. When we meet they ready themselves for battle,
But the scratches are above the breast band.

11. With no throats do we contend with lances
When breasts stand erect like stirred up waves

12. Lances contend with the cheeks of the slender, bent twigs,
Not with cheeks, nor with the ringlets above them.

13. We walked as the darkness split before the light of dawn
Like the stars of Virgo before rising suns.

14. And though it treads the ground, seemliness is on it
Which in the heart's secret whispers blessing.

15. Set aright the breasts of the she-camels, for they
Are the path of love between ribs penetrating.

16. Have you not seen the garden on earth as if
The sun's rays were secreted within its trees?

17. As if there cups stirred by the wind
When tall branches wave over them.

18. As if verdant meadowsweet were kohled for eyes
And sheds its blood into cups it fills.

19. The world brings you no suns you can see
Nor hands to gather in the gardens' blooms.

20. But laughing girls have revealed their beauty to us,
Though days of glory made them vague.

21. The eternal Kawthar has watered the pool of Hashim
And the angels visited the glory of the Faith.

22. I bear witness for the House of Hashim that no holy places
Are holy if not of them, no holy rites enacted.

23. That no imam is right but he of the crown whose glories
And battles meet. To him belongs the line of Az-Zahra,

24. Unique in the world. Of venerable deeds now past
Were the origination and now again their restoration.

25. An imam who saw the world behind him, so one
Who takes from it is leaving it. When he desires

26. His resolves cannot be stopped. Commands issue from him
To determine destinies by your powers.

27. To him unhearing oceans would give up their affairs.
The blustering winds comply with all he wills.

28. His fame has not coursed the broad earth,
But rather runs in the sun's orbit.

29. The essence of this light is not the light of his brow
But it partakes the light of God. To him the cherubim

30. Draw near whom he shoes with blood when they knock
Against the thickets of glory with their stirrups.

31. Fresh, moist pearls pour out their water over them
And melted gold runs over them from the crucible poured.

32. Burnished mirrors of damascened swords as if they
Were commanded to polish themselves on the grinding stone.

33. They separate skulls from turbans, so death
Draws near, while other lives are spared.

34. Good fortune attend them! Girth their loins for the charge,
For they are the smooth-bodied, doughty mares!

35. Rule the conquests of countries! Their smiles
Are like the grinning of a mouth to be kissed.

36. Your strength's firm resolve assists you through youth
With a cutting blade, while lions' ferocity assists your attacks.

37. You have mastered, no, treated death with disdain,
As if you contended with fate and would not lose.

38. For you are the green meadows whose soil is redolent
Where souls once lost are restored to life.

39. Your hands spread riches to protect the weak,
Though you clutch hold of your garment's train.

40. Yours is the State of Truth in which no intrigues were spun
Nor scenes of tumult in your chambers played.

41. An imamate which Harun did not undermine
Nor idols with God's unity associate.

42. From you a soul returns to Paradise,
Where its Lord and angels pray for you.

43. My praise of Revelation's inspiration is for you.
It is not corrupted nor am I unfaithful.

44. Affection has called me to you, so I have responded,
My strength, my night, and planets influencing fates.

45. I am disdainful, not made lowly by humiliation.
Unwilling to drink the draughts of ignominy you pour.

46. If the people tie me to Umayyad posts
I rend a thicket of hair and stand firm.

47. The war horses of Umayyah do not know war,
Nor bear the piercing of the spear thrust home.

48. They have not unsheathed a blade whose striking
is feared,

49. But instead they wield unsharpened iron.
Never in war have the shields of Umayyah remained intact,

50. Rather it is slave girls wandering confused.
Whenever they attend a panegyrist, a praiser is abashed,

51. While the unbeliever's measure remains veiled in darkness.
The censure of Hashim's House will reveal to you

52. Swords whose blades are destined for perdition.
Will God not recite your writings? Yet their scholars

53. Are ailing from the wounds and blood you draw!
They are your gaze, and prophecy among you,

54. Just as the gray-haired women eyed the stalwart warriors.
Faith is gladdened that the third of its throne

55. And a portion of perdition glanced its way.
O House of Hashim! God has fulfilled his promise

56. And made his sun rise over you resplendently.
Battalions proclaimed the revenge of Husayn

57. With the blood banner fluttering midst the fray.
They visit the heir of heirs while breasts

58. And fluttering standards shield him.
A clear example of governance, as if

59. The meteorites rained down upon the thickets.
Thrust them into the cooking pots, for I see

60. Feeble birds and sturdy eggs arrayed.
It is time Quraysh be rewarded for their labors,

61. Either with life or with death ever imminent.
I see the poets of the kingdomMove aside for me

62. And the she-ostriches avoid the lion in fright.
Their slowness fails toward my race course

63. And those vain opinions miss the mark.
They saw me as a dove and so their skin prickled,

64. Though I am a chieftain before whom necks must bend.
Their rhymes go awry while your goodness makes correct.

65. They declaim prose while your glory smiles.
They censure while I compose, though eulogies abound,

66. So why should I complain? Their goods are but worn garments.
For me a spirit disdained the way of the people in verse,

67. Lofty ambition and a soul disdainful of baseness.
The world has not bent my hopes, and beyond it,

68. I refuse the Plaintiff's case and leave it unargued.
I took no joy in contemplating other than the Caliph,

69. And that to me the wide world yields.
So charge my soul with the weight of your favor,

70. For I am the assailed and you are the contender.
Keep far from intimate talk the crown filled by my speech,

71. As my hide is chewed by the days pouring misfortunes.
Indolence, poverty, while in your hands is plenty.

72. Greetings then! I waver between these two states: destruction or survival.
By some signs the afflictions pouring down on me have relented,

73. Trimmed back by the train of your gown.
They are like a flock of cranes stirred up

74. By the cloak of David over me extended.
War assisted by partisans is their likeness.

75. Unless you aid me I will withdraw.
What speaking tongue is not silenced and halted?

76. What sitter can stand who is crippled?
My love for you drove me to verse and realm of every poet,

77. Lofty determination and a soul that spurns baseness.
I have not bent the world by my hopes, and beyond it

78. I refuse the role of plaintiff though the case be argued.
No worldly joy has delighted me but the Caliph,