1. The house calls upon you, seeking your flowing tears
To quench its thirst, though tears avail not the abode

2. So weep not, nor shed the tears you have treasured
For dignity's sake; between ruins and stones

3. For yesterday you were the house's neighbor
And a neighbor has rights, as you know, upon a neighbor

4. You lived enjoying pleasures in it, for years
With faces like suns that never set, and moons that never wane

5. And now most of a lifetime spent there has passed
Amidst help and blooming youths

6. Radiant whites, that had they poured on the gloom
Their brilliance would have sufficed instead of the shining stars

7. Free women who gaze with faces
Where the blossoms of youth shine through, highborn and free

8. Sweet-scented, whose hands plunged not in mire
Nor perfumed themselves with wares of perfumers

9. They offered you forbidden intimacies temptingly
As they wished, to one forbidding and one indulgent

10. When you visited, the cheeks offered you their flowers
My place of pleasures, my desires' mart, the cradle of my sighs

11. Despite this house, descendants of noble stock still lead you to drink
When passions are roused, they flood the plains, unruly

12. And a rugged valley, however the troop has crammed it
With the resolve of a wonted guide, fearing no horror

13. It marched on through journeys until its guide
Was as accurate as a polished goblet fashioned by the Maker

14. To glories, when men trace their line, of a folk
Of brilliant deeds, the best of noblemen

15. And excelling in merit, their garb ornamented
With the treasure of relics and store of mysteries

16. Hailing the Prophet, the Chosen One, and his trustee
Pillars that once leaned over a crumbling brink

17. Through him upright again stood pillars
That once leaned over a crumbling brink

18. So when my mounts halted at his door
No regret for far journeys clouded my mind

19. I alighted at his porticoed house, which is
A circling-place for visitors and the Kaaba of pilgrims

20. Thus, when I arrived, my arrival with an eminent man
Was better than fine silk garments, though bare

21. Despite misfortunes, he made my drink pleasant for me
And made sweet the draft of life for me after bitterness

22. And saved me from the clutch of fate after it
Bared fangs to fall upon me, claw and grasp

23. Though ignorant of the extent of my merit, none but he
Among the tribe knew my worth

24. Indeed, I think not a handspan of earth remains
Which news of me has not reached under wraps

25. And no wonder - the Elixir is most famed
Yet still remains, through ignorance, behind veils

26. When his palm was filled, he grieved not
For a coin, if he gained it not, or a dinar

27. O noble son, the Trustee praised them
As none but the unprotesting hand would gainsay

28. With two traits, when not one of his comrades
Bared teeth for battle save those who fled headlong

29. And they saw a battle-hungry jinn tribe rush
To death, faster than one fevered to the fire

30. Hastening to the summoner of wars, deeming them
The drink of life at the wellspring of life

31. They stirred the gloom of the whites and relied on
Parting from a people who parted from probity, reprobates

32. And couched when they frothed at the mouth, at the necks
Of the steeds, sacrificed to the butcher like slaughtered sheep

33.
Then he said, and his soul was pleased thereat

34. Content, and his eyes well pleased, what pleasure!
"Had I been gatekeeper at the gates of Paradise

35. As the valid sources have made plain
I would have laden your back with kindness, nor ceased

36. To stoop beneath burdens of gravity and honor
And tamed your mind after its sapling roared

37. With an outpouring from the water of your overflowing merit
And tasked me to race behind you after you reached

38. A station none can attain with bounding flight
How can the short-striding vie in speed

39. In every racecourse with the long of stride?
And obliged me to praise a man - had I praised him

40. With the poets' verse - let my poems go!
I would fall short of matching what he deserves

41. However little or much I say
An imam guiding to truth, righteous, devout - when he claims descent

42. From nobles of unsullied virtues, most pure
And righteous to the righteous; trace back his line,

43. And none but the righteous engendered the righteous to Adam
Awaited - Allah has delayed his time

44. For naught but the cause of right and proof
In him is a resolve that can bend fate, a determination

45. That befriends the lamb and the fierce lion
An anger the glooms have hidden, and he is to be summoned

46. To avenge past scores and settle old accounts
O Abu'l Qasim arise, and relieve the bitterness

47. Of a band, though every unbeliever is past its wrongs
Why delay the purpose and goal, when our waiting

48. Is for clouds that have shaded us, without rain?
The bloom of lovely patience is faded, giving notice

49. Of barrenness, for procrastination prolonged overlong
Lay open the sanctuary of oppression, inviolable -

50. With a Thursday raid filling the earth, recurrent
With it, all enfeebled in resolution will display

51. To the Overbearing One's minions the awe of an Overpowering One
When the lance is broken, the sword is bared, working

52. Havoc among dusky slaves and fair-skinned villeins
I made you a promise of praise beyond measure, so let not

53. My recompense match the extent of my verse and my limit
Below you I place her, matchless among women

54. To any but you - the veils of my thoughts
And the All-Controller's salutations persist

55. Reaching you through them night and day"