1. Return, O nightingales, to the branches,
And rouse the nightingales of the trees,

2. Echo back to me every melody of sorrow,
And excellently stir up the excitements of sorrows.

3. You are like me in the world of passion, except
That I know what has saddened me,

4. While the ignorant passionate person, regarding what has saddened him,
Is like a consoler, sincerely weeping over the bereaved.

5. How much I concealed the most delightful love,
And my torment with what is the second delight!

6. God has granted me her love, but then
He has afflicted me with her estrangement and trial.

7. Her estrangement from me reminded me to shun her,
And to pursue the path of contentment,

8. Her arrogance made me forget her, as if
I never considered the Hereafter in my reckoning,

9. My soul emboldened me to rebel
In her love, and my devil led me,

10. I learned of the two guardian angels, but
My misfortune blinded me from guidance.

11. I know not what my heart will do
On the day I am resurrected naked,

12. What will be my plea before Reckoning, when
My lifelong deeds are spread out?

13. What will be my plea when I have reaped sins
That burdened me and blackened my record?

14. What will be my plea when I am called and fear
That my good deeds are light in the scale?

15. What will be my plea when I am asked how
I spent my fleeting life?

16. What will be my plea when I am exposed and asked
About what my hands and feet have earned?

17. And witnesses are brought against me
Of my body parts and tongue's disobedience?

18. How anxious I will be when my book is taken
In my left hand, and I lose!

19. And the proof of the Truth is established against me
By the decree of the Sublime Bestower of Bounties.

20. Who will protect me from torment when
The Judgement of the Compensator judges me?

21. Who will protect me from misery when
I am bound in chains of disgrace?

22. Who will protect me on the Path when
The consequences of disobedience make me tremble?

23. Who will protect me when I am driven away
With sternness by the Possessor of Might?

24. Obstacles, though I may have known
What I will face and what will face me,

25. If You call me to account for them, O Doer of Good,
And fear for my loss and disgrace,

26. And make the disobedient taste the dragging punishment,
As they deserve the Fire's destiny,

27. Then my salvation is in the Master of Messengers, Taha,
And in my weeping which quenches thirst,

28. The allies of polytheism unjustly thirsted him,
And the hand of transgression made him drink harm,

29. They prevented him from reaching the water,
While with his hands he joins the two oceans,

30. And they waged against him a war of helpers,
And provoked dormant grudges,

31. So seventy thousand turned against him
And called him to abandonment,

32. They rallied them against him from every valley,
From Syria to Kufa,

33. And took lightly fighting him with three,
Among arrows, spears and swords.

34. My heart is drawn to him and my soul is his ransom
From the lone one roaming the battlefield

35. With a fervent heart burning
Between the heat of thirst and heat of spears.

36. Calling for help upon his grandfather and father,
Alone among them without supporters,

37. And calling to mind – he being the Light of God –
More articulate in remembrance than eloquence,

38. Saying among them, “I am the son of Ali the Chosen,
And the son of the best of women,

39. And the son of Taha Muhammed, the best of God's creation,
By nature and sign of the Merciful.”

40. Why then is my blood violated and my flesh lawful
Though from the Prophet of guidance I grew up?

41. So a lethal arrow came to him from the enemy,
Would that it had cloven my brain and my entrails!

42. And his heart leapt up so its echo resounded
In the breasts of religion, like the call to prayer.

43. So the best Imam fell down, radiant,
Pure, fragrant, to the ground.

44. Supplicating God for what He tested him with
In the path of submission and obedience.

45. And destiny struck him with the blow of a sword
From Khowli and a stab from a spear,

46. And Shimr mounted his chest with a sword
Which destroyed the pillar of guidance and palace of security.

47. And he went on cutting the jugular with a blade
Whetted for him in the hands of a devil.

48. So the universe was clothed in darkness, grieving
Over an affliction that made the Two Weighty Ones weep.

49. And existence and the Throne eulogized him when
The wrath of guidance was mixed with faith.

50. They killed him without respecting the right
Of al-Mustafa, no, nor of glory.

51. They left him prone in blood
On the hot earth without shrouds.

52. So the sea of my heart wept with passion for him
And the sigh of bereavement.

53. And let your tear flow in sorrow for him, but
Who will lament with a useful tear?