1. He smiles with a bright grin
And looks with a listless gaze

2. And sways gently like a bough
When a breeze stirs its waist

3. Of that which dispels the patience of the forbearing
Is the grace of figure and the languor of glance

4. And how could I forget the vigor of youth
When old age reproached me

5. Stars of white hair clung to my youth
Dimming its beauty however abundant

6. And I found, believe me, do not call me a liar
The blackness of passion in the whiteness of hair

7. One must leave one of two
Either youth or lifetime

8. Have you not seen how lightning flared up
And the specter of clouds how it faded

9. An apparition which saddened them from afar
While we are kneeling on our stomachs

10. And what did she want from my pilgrim-clad beloved
As they dragged the skirts of their izārs

11. We climbed willfully to throw pebbles
And wipe the stone and ply ṣafā

12. We performed the Hajj thanking for what
God has granted us in the Victorious

13. Forbearance in diminishing sweetness
And wisdom in the outbreak of bitterness

14. He is patient when ordaining
And fair when decreeing

15. Remaining on one and the same noble trait
Of great charm and grave danger

16. And no man has sought in the kingdom an endeavor
Appearing with good and doubling with good

17. Nor was he of two alternating states
Going out for benefit and returning with harm

18. Rather like the water of clouds purified
Good are its beginnings and ends

19. He spared the subjects from an ordeal
Whose night overcast them

20. And when its darkness growled
He shone among them so he was the moon

21. With resolve dispelling gloom and blindness
And determination erecting the bent and broken

22. Rectitude by which you have shouldered on that day
The rope of the Caliphate until it settled

23. And a composure by which you stood
On the shoulder of the kingdom until it steadied

24. Had it been other than you, he would not have undertaken
Those adversities nor been capable

25. You returned wrongs and regained
By your hands rights from the oppressed

26. The House of Abī Ṭālib after
Their midst was made to scatter and disperse

27. And their lowliest were met with aloofness
The sky almost burst from it

28. You joined their kinship
When the bond was about to rupture

29. So you drew near their share what was distanced
And purified from their drink what was dirtied

30. And how can you be distant from them and meeting
If not due to hatred or enmity

31. Rather you are their siblings
And brothers, not outsiders to them

32. And who are they while you are a hand of help
And edge of a time-honored sword

33. You are the ones whose precedence the Book praises
And whose virtues the suras recite

34. And Ali is more worthy of you
And purer of hand with you than Umar

35. Though each has his merit and foolishness
The day of preference is without confusion

36. You remained the Imam of guidance to guidance
Renewing of its approach what wore out