1. Behold, everything to come is near,
And every life shall reach an end;

2. And naught deludes a soul but itself,
And the youth's life is but the youth's hopes.

3. Swifter in the glance than a wink,
And faster in hearing than one who says "aye."

4. Yet I never saw the prudent man
Whose eyes were filled with what could not be seen;

5. For the sights are naught but the hearts,
While the eyes in them are blind.

6. Who can lend me weapons like time
That I may gain power over it when it sets upon me,

7. That I may find it attacking yet running away,
That I may catch up with it though it is fleet of foot.

8. It shot its arrows and there was nothing left
But the stripping of bones flung down in waste,

9. Scraped, thrown away, growing again, unswerving,
Deaf, unhearing, unknown.

10. Shall I be crushed when my sinews have not softened
And my hands have no coward's trembling?

11. I am like the wide plain amid winds
And whatever befalls, safe from rupture.

12. And were it not for the fear of death drawing nigh,
It would have tried me to see what it would try.

13. O my friend, can my weeping avail me
Or sorrow bring back what has passed away?

14. O my friend, go gently, not halting;
My understanding is other than anguish.

15. I have sighs that would melt the rigid,
And a heart that closes on my pain.

16. Go in peace before the budding of desire
And the restless bed complain of his return.

17. He watched the stars and longed for their setting,
And thought the Pleiades slow to go down.

18. Ribs straitened when his sides closed together,
And a heart overflowing when filled.

19. I said to the lightning flashing in the dust,
"Is the gleam in the drizzle or in the rain?"

20. Why did he lead this rabble,
And gird that avenging sword?

21. Destiny brought him in a squadron
And made as if to fend off fate from me.

22. I blame you, lightning, blame of an astrologer,
And in you is no rain to revive me.

23. We both spurned the trodden road in its night,
But I was the weaker when fate was raging.

24. You burst the clouds and I burst with love –
Your sheltering me is no secret from foes.

25. Help me against the night, night of perfection,
And leave me to my madness when it is done.

26. Had I tried to weather its danger,
My morning would have revealed deadly earnest.

27. Not for eyes' delight is this vigil
Or the wild cat's wish to sleep.

28. I say, though the topmost clouds are torn,
The hilltops and heights sundered,

29. Why should the lute in times like these,
The lightning in such heavy rain,

30. Not make hearts its watering-place
And flames its hearth?

31. Let it inspire the buried in their tombs -
Had they seen their nobility's deeds they would not have slumbered.

32. In him of shining belt and sword
Is the sea's surge and naught of the sea pertains to him.

33. Come one, come all, this is the end of the two worlds.
Who does not grieve for him, grief has no heart.

34. She who brought forth the best of mankind for the world –
The House of Ali was mother to mankind.

35. Had glory spoken of an unbeliever,
It would have spoken by what he saw.

36. The white swords mourned him, flesh of his flesh,
And these firm stones, hearts of his heart.

37. When we came to him the tears poured over him
And ere night he was watered by life.

38. Fortune gave him no wealth to hoard;
But tears mourn him with tears.

39. The sun hollowed his cheeks in its blaze
But we were beforehand with him in the dust.

40. He loses naught who circles not that tomb,
When he circles the old fane, buttressed, firm.

41. They said Hajoun, so Hajoun was filled,
Safa filled, and Marwa's hill filled,

42. Between north and south, amid winds
From the breath of the dawn.

43. There the tombs of the three, in that place
Would not one have sufficed for the sublime?

44. By kneeling and prostrating himself there when one prays
Or calls upon Him – that ground and gravel

45. More right to me than my cloak or Miná.
And had the Arabs of old joined us

46. And fulfilled in us their faithfulness,
Crowds of dancing girls came to him

47. Some singly, some in pairs;
Why not follow the example of bounty

48. And will the course of the generous gone before?
When you slay or slaughter

49. Count the upturned forelocks, the bowed heads.
Be content only with the slaughter of praise

50. And the sacrifice of verse, else no.
Then would the blood spilled over it,

51. The blood of those who stab, pour forth;
Then would no smooth-skinned damsel

52. Hide in her robe, or swimmer float in his diving.
The best of his people counted with his uncles,

53. His paternal and maternal kin the same.
That a steed foaled Jaafar

54. And Layla mothered Yahya.
This came like the sun of daytime;

55. That like the full moon in the night.
By them you may see the lions of battle

56. In the throng of retentioners and the two sons of proof.
Were you not the heart of your people,

57. Its might, in the sum of grandeur?
So your people's prey is the prey of kings,

58. And their lion the lion of the thicket.
Horsemen who shake the always-full water skins

59. When they meet each other with rattling quivers.
Their brightness shines upon them

60. When the iron gleams against them.
You came as you wished, from both your flanks,

61. For you are life, and you are doom.
Cutting you grows keener but meets no response;

62. Your fire burns stronger, is not cooled.
By that you turned away Fate's caprice,

63. But grief you could not cheat save by endurance.
You did not sheath the sword till it bent;

64. You did not turn your spear till it bowed.
He whom you shielded with your outstanding valor,

65. His resolves surpassed all resolves.
He whitens your enemies when he avails himself;

66. He is known among them when he conceals himself.
He comes upon eyes of enviers

67. When they are asked "Who is the youth?" and told "That one."
Sons of select mothers, sons of select fathers,

68. Part of our mothers and our lineage is theirs
If a king of ancient stock should rise among us.

69. Our days' pillars are in their first stones,
And our fathers' equals are in their lofty fortresses.

70. Do you not see that they vie with us,
Outdo us, and attain their goal?

71. They guaranteed us shade from tents
And they guaranteed us shade from spears.

72. In the morn their ears and eyes are ours,
And in the evening amid throngs of warriors.

73. Had my judgment prevailed on the ancients
And I sized the shares of this world,

74. I'd name some womenmen,
And name some men women.

75. If she unveiled hardships to strike down,
How then her boys to fling the spears?

76. She turnedaside, grand, for kings,
Either Mustafa's son or else Murtaza's,

77. And most of her hopes were in you both,
While in her heart hot coals from your absence burned.

78. She attained what she wished. Cease
To stint what remains of her wishes to her.

79. But for the tomb she would call you both
To guard you from the gloating of enemies.

80. Either you add to her company
Or ward off ruin from her.

81. For the living may laugh at their dead's eminence
And their greatest quake in the grave.

82. Seek as you will the sign of nobility;
Its proof is accord between passion and will.

83. You are the right hand: act with the left!
No hand suffices without another.

84. Not spears but with swords,
Not pillars but with building high.

85. Who calls no brother by name
Is neither feared nor held dear.