1. The ages knew not, nor did their natures realize
To which protector of faith their Lord would entrust their care?

2. And which Ali stormed forth to meet his inevitable fate?
My very soul has endured the suffering of such ordeals

3. And piety crept amid the expanse of its chilling solitude
While the best on earth turned away from it in hordes

4. The night of Monday slipped away with its fleeting hours
To its warnings he lent an ear, listening intently

5. Patience scattered its collected shards in a moment’s time
While sorrow marshalled its determined ranks in a show of solidarity

6. The day whose morning was heralded by the light of dawn
With joy and merriment spreading their wings in celebration

7. And left behind all that it lived for, now spreading its misery
Anew it weeps for its own bereavement and wailing distress

8. It cries, what strength of will does the eyelid possess
To hold back tears, or how far can the forbearing restrain their effusion?

9. And which amulet might cage the fierce winds of fate
And contain the sting of sorrow deep within its resistant exterior?

10. And how could I restrain myself, when even those
Who bemoan their lot cannot adequately convey their woe?

11. Ask the faded necklace about the pearls torn from its thread
Does fate even know anymore where it has cast them aside?

12. Yes, it poisoned them, and death has bought them for a pittance
If only you could retrieve and reclaim them!

13. Keep them shut awhile gently if you would preserve piety
In your hands, a lid not lifted lightly in some time

14. And wash it carefully, for it is the body of a noble soul
You turn over, none too gently wrested away

15. And curb it softly! Are you not infinitely more merciful
Than fate in its caprice, which robbed it of its sanctity?

16. Bear it forth in the bier, for only you now shoulder
The burden of its legacy, once its sole possession

17. And lay it to rest in its grave, for piety desires
To sleep alongside its brother, drawing close in intimacy

18. And mourn it sincerely, not just with tears alone
But with blood of your innermost being surging forth unrestrained

19. And console its kin, though words scarcely suffice,
So profound the sorrow, but does aching hearts ease?

20. Yes, though it leaves you hollow and wanting, such
Was the height of its glory, towering to the skies

21. With its ambition, rising to the honor of highest place
And stretching to attain the most splendid goals

22. It has gone, that brilliant moon, and they are stars
Whose orbits it illumined with its radiant beams

23. The sweetest perfumes of honor have dissipated from its abode
And the scent of pride is diffused throughout its domains

24. So patience, O people of piety, though your grief
Has stripped bare what little solace the age afforded you

25. For you and for us, the seemly mourning of a father
Who brought happiness to the dew, spreading its moisture

26. He is the rightly-guided Proof, on whose brow
A light appeared, adorning the throngs in their vigil

27. And the guidance did not follow in his footsteps
Rather God ordained his great example be followed

28. O Father of Sa'ada! If the eagles circling high
Could attain the lofty reaches of their nobility, they could not

29. For Ja'far is virtuous and good, and Muhammad
Is Hussein. Each bears his nature and character.

30. Branches of a noble tree, watered at the root
To feed its glory, reaching upward for the sky

31. In them is honor enough, even if the nobles
Measured it in their valuations, to find it beyond measure

32. O Father of Salih! How many perplexities you have resolved
And ambiguities obscured beneath their masks brought to light

33. The full moon of your countenance has darkened our stars
And in it we see the imprint of your radiance reflected

34. What is glory if not the pillars you erected to prop it up
And what is generosity without the skill you perfected in its practice?

35. Most wondrous is that any man of merit would presume
To surpass you, when the least of your gifts exceeds any other's sum

36. And how could your lofty eminence be constrained
When the proudest of your feats has broadened the horizons of possibility?

37. You return the excessive grants of the wasteful, unlike those
Who give but the smallest of gifts, only to demand them back

38. You have devoted yourself to restoring the rift in the faith, preserving
What none other than you could from ruin and devastation

39. Ever the raincloud of kindness, its udders give milk
To the shrine of Ali, flowing and nursing in abundance