1. My affliction is grave, yet consolation is sweet,
And I think that Allah will soon grant relief.

2. Wounds tended by constant sorrows are dreadful,
And from both maladies relief has long been rare.

3. I endure captivity and nights whose stars
Reveal all things vanishing except for them.

4. The hours drag on though short for me,
And in every age, none will please you long.

5. When times are fair, friends tend to forget me
Till another misfortune comes my way.

6. Who now keeps faith? Though many profess it, few remain loyal.
I look around in vain for a faithful friend

7. Who will not incline wherever fortune flows.
Now we think the estranged man moral

8. And a friend who does no injury, kind.
What friend is this, so unfair,

9. What age is this, so mean in kindness?
Yes, life invites betrayal. Learned and ignorant

10. Answer its summons.
Amr abandoned his brother az-Zubair

11. And Aqeel deserted the Commander of the Faithful.
Oh what remorse that I have no close friend

12. To lament with me and to console!
Behind the curtains a mother weeps for me, though years pass,

13. Her weeping is long.
O my mother, do not despair, patience brings

14. Swiftly the good news of deliverance.
O my mother, do not lose your reward,

15. Great is the recompense for noble patience.
Have you no model in the Lady of the Waistband

16. When the foe roamed free in Mecca?
Her son sought safety, but she granted no consent,

17. Knowing well that he would be slain.
May God guard you from the fears you harbor,

18. For people before you have met such misfortunes.
Be as Safiyya was at Uhud,

19. When her laments brought her no relief,
If the return of the noble Hamzah could have lifted her sorrow,

20. No wailing cry would have risen from her that day.
I met the stars of the horizon as they rose, swords at the ready,

21. And penetrated the black night with its racing steeds.
Yet I did not allow my noble soul to show cowardice

22. On that eve when I had no protecting friend.
Rather I went to meet death until I left it behind,

23. Amid the broken swords and scattered forces.
He whom God does not protect is torn to pieces,

24. He whom God does not honor is disgraced.
What God does not will in all affairs

25. Cannot be attained by any creature.