1. Now, when war has cast its die
And this grave matter risen, we stand firm.

2. After sixty arguings, you pinch my hose,
As though I'm ordered not, nor bound to pay.

3. You come with news that brings Sedition to Syria
And beneath what you've displayed, a slipper's stumble.

4. So I said to you some words that would not harm,
And if they harmed, your bearing of my weight would not be burdened.

5. Yet you blamed me, every day and night,
As though the one who wears you out were not, as I am worn.

6. Oh, how foul is blame and blamers!
Have you not seen what morn has left me to?

7. So leave that and turn—can you find a trick today
to drive off men whose riding camels seethe?

8. Called by Ali, they answered his summons
with more zest than they have wealth or family.

9. Say I “Flee death’s turmoil!”—yet they yearn
to turmoil as the infatuated to the ravishing mare.