1. Do you weep for Time or despair over fate?
The master of days is ever despairing.

2. Had sorrows relented for you, there would be
Comfort in sorrow for the insightful and contented.

3. Take comfort in who you have comforted, for they
Are arrows of death flying and striking.

4. We were struck one day in Hamaid, if only it
Had struck the bride of time she would have swayed and fallen.

5. It disciplined us as it had disciplined men before us,
But no opportunity remained for patience.

6. Have you not seen how the days have grown decrepit
Through it, and through it they were pushed back and driven away?

7. And how it came to rest in a narrow piece of earth,
Though the earth was too confining for it?

8. When its days came to an end, glory came to an end,
And its flowing spring dried up though it had gushed forth.

9. The enemy of religion withdrew despicably,
Pursuing hopes that had been cut to shreds inside him.

10. And Hamaid was a fortress to which knelt
Foundations that did not kneel to oppression.

11. I saw him like a gazelle I had hunted down
And did not know that all creation wept for him.

12. A dove he had sheltered drove him from his secure places,
Thus, disasters are driven away by disasters.

13. It is no surprise that a death should strike
The sanctuary of its sister, or that the invincible should be subdued.

14. Among us death took its vengeance,
And befell us with calamities—and they cannot be resisted.

15. Call out Hamaid’s name to the young warriors when
They thrust with spear-points at dawn and share out the spoils.

16. To the exhausted and distressed, his affairs were too constricted,
So amidst his confusions he knew not what to do.

17. For the wife bereft of her husband no callers remained
Except the rasping-voiced rooster at dawn, her disquieter.

18. It was as if Hamaid had not led a mighty army
Against another army, undismayed.

19. As if he had not unleashed the galloping horses at dawn,
Charging, only to return with them dust-covered.

20. The returning warriors carried booty—and yet they were not
Like his regiments and the protector of their rear guard.

21. The lofty mountain of the world fell, its pouring rain ceased,
And its protector, the impenetrable rear guard.

22. He was the sword of the Commander of the Faithful and his spear,
The key to the door of calamities and disasters.

23. So it sufficed him from his kingdom, his lands
And his attainments—a barren tract of land.

24. For what sorrow should the soul complain after him?
To his sorrow, or store up flowing tears?

25. Have you not seen how the sun—its light is dimmed for him
And its color darkened, though it had radiated?

26. The world was emptied of life and its splendor extinguished.
Its pasture, which had sprouted, dried up.

27. Through him the world was tranquil,
Yet now its pegs have been pulled up.

28. The spirit of life wept for his loss
As the companion wept his call, and the wayfarer, the outcast.

29. The white-skinned ladies left their chambers,
And languishing sorrows without comfort were unveiled.

30. He awakened some whose eyes sleep had weighed down,
While eyes that had not closed before fell asleep.

31. But it is the ordained lot—for a day
Sheltered each person—branches grow from the trunk.

32. God has mended the Community with Muhammad
And with the origin its branches burgeon.

33. I boast of his swords and his spears
Which apportion the fifth spoils of Thursday and gather them.

34. He sheltered his father from vituperation and backbiting—
Tabuk and the Allies were his sharp blades.