1. We had lofty aspirations laid out,
And buried both religion and worldliness together.

2. And held bereavement rites for endeavors,
And collectively mourned the loss of pride.

3. Oh, what has the earth, which
The glance of the world was deposited in, buried?

4. And what person, who in his struggle
We and the angels walked together uprightly, buried?

5. The coffin, which blessings of the earth were raised for when it was raised,
Of a king alive and dead, whose fate refused anything but the highest courtyard.

6. If you ask how he competed with that zeal,
In which he contended with the fierce lion in its den.

7. Through it he brought his cub closer,
The lion of God, alive and responsive to the call.

8. So we asked her, though her eyes were shedding tears
And she was calling them "teardrops".

9. And we wet the soil of the grave they buried
The pious and devout man in.

10. And we uncovered it violently, rock upon rock,
Falling upon it in pieces.

11. And we sprinkled it, but with entrails,
Which ardent passion made with it as it made.

12. So for what do we brace ourselves?
The sayer lied, “My heart has returned.”

13. And we undid the knot of patience in agony,
And strained against ardent passion.

14. And we returned without returning, and nothing remains for us
Except a glance restraining what did not return.

15. Oh son of my friend, I have a blazing fire
That fills my chest however much it expanded.

16. So to Mecca, for in it lies
The society of the Living, Comforter of all.

17. Head to it and rely on its open plain,
It used to be the gathering place of nobility.

18. Stand in it and forbid all of Quraysh,
For Quraysh today has died altogether.

19. And with the water of Sheba’s praise, take
A drink that shatters the ribs within you.

20. Tell him that if he died a painful death before,
Then he has died now at the mourning of bereavement.

21. A slamming misfortune cracked your egg,
The heart of revelation split open against it.

22. The coat of armour of Hashimites, which
My cloak deemed sufficient to be armoured, vanished.

23. And the glory of all Nizar folded up
At an affliction that commanded it to submit.

24. Today I have not lost except a mountain
To which the frightened would resort for refuge.

25. It had been firmly rooted for a time but against
The chests of enemies, then was uprooted.

26. The hands of doom brandished their swords
So the endless flow of time sought refuge from it in fright.

27. And it protected its nose in its palm,
Yet the palm-less protected the hand-less!

28. Deafening the hearing of guidance, a slamming
Never to be slammed against its like before.

29. If an eye had seen what no eye witnessed,
It would have seen our eyes with Gabriel crying blood.

30. Saying, “It is enough, stop grieving over Hashim,
And head up the hill, hastening.”

31. It is the association of the Exalted which
Contained that most inaccessible and unassailable being.

32. Stand in it with the stance of a consoler, restraining
A liver that fell in a severed palm.

33. Harness the camel of ardour and say
You are not, O camel, that camel.

34. But rather you were protection over time
In which the nights found no covetousness.

35. In you, the guidance was revived
By the Possessor, who caused deviance to die.

36. So blindness and injustice parted from you
While justice and equity gathered in you.

37. With the Father of Righteousness if the world went astray
And my brother of splendour if the caller called.

38. By my life, worries have overwhelmed the one
Who was most eloquent of speech among the eloquent.

39. His mourner's earnestness made us say “jester!”
Not knowing the essence of the one he was mourning.

40. So when the appeal refused the one
Whose intestines burst from it in agony,

41. The rain had cried for its brother before you
So wring out your livers with tears.

42. Al-Sadiq Jaʿfar has departed from you
And with him Islam was forcibly anguished.

43. So to where? Is there a course
They have endured, never to cool?

44. Oh Abu Musa, perk up your hearing for me
And force yourself today not to hear.

45. Rather, it suffices me in agony to see
Death has emptied this place of you.

46. Or do you not have in the Exalted’s association
Whose rhymes you never stopped making harmonious?

47. Where is that face I greeted
With the wit of praise, radiating nothing but light?

48. Where is that palm from which generosity dripped
Whenever the living being was miserly or prevented?

49. So sink your fangs into it together.
The protector who praises you has died, O twitterer,

50. Dripping lethal poison like tears that smear.
Shudder, O earth, for us,

51. For the clouds of generosity have uncovered us.
And the fringes of glory diminished, passing away,

52. For the pillar of glory was plucked from you.
Time stumbled, so say neither blame

53. Nor excuse, but take both from it or leave both.
For it has come with a slam that

54. Shattered the backbone of the Exalted and broke it.
All troubles end at it,

55. So transgression and forgiveness came together.
More knowing which traits it slammed,

56. Or more knowing which drink it poured.
So the eyelid of religion turned to mote

57. Whose speck the Mahdi removed until it was laid to rest.
But the Mahdi among us is a verse

58. That amazed the Creator in what He originated.
No shocks could shake his patience, which

59. If it slammed the Shining Garden, it would quake.
He controlled his eyelids, but his heart

60. And the fervour behind his ribs trembled.
O you who carry the burdens of the Exalted,

61. Taking them on though they weigh heavily upon you.
You are the nation’s leader, and through you

62. The religion of following has been legislated for them.
Those stung by the viper of misery seek remedy

63. In the incantations of your dreams.
You were raised in houses which

64. God permitted to be elevated.
I do not see al-Fihā’ except as a forest

65. Where one lion succeeds another.
If Abu Musa departs from it, here is

66. Abu al-Hadi returning to it.
One lantern for another lantern in exchange,

67. That one extinguished while this one shines.
A glory who extends a palm that never ceased

68. To be a retreat for the one seeking dew.
Of high spirit the mind cannot attain, nor

69. Can the bird of imagination alight upon it.
A master whom glory told “Rise up

70. Where you will not find exaltedness rising higher.”
And confined the word to him, but he

71. Followed the Chosen One, adhering.
So he flowed in his wake, mounting

72. And riding the Gemini obediently.
And the glory on his face, which

73. That one had on al-Husayn’s face, radiated.
My lords, pardon me, I have been shaken by a blow

74. That silenced the eloquent orator in me.
My tongue did not stop eulogizing Jaʿfar

75. Or my beloved before that even if cut off.