1. The dwellings of loved ones have stirred in us
Some latent malady that lay dormant within.

2. The winds wail their laments, and if I say “Subside,”
They echo, “If only our stature could diminish!”

3. My tears now flow copiously, though once restrained,
Streaming in cascades through my eyes’ dark pools.

4. As though my tears were showers drawn on by the breeze
Of the south wind, arriving sluggishly.

5. Do the ruins of a pure soul still appear to you
When you are crazed with yearning for the absent ones?

6. The dwellings had captivated you the day you knew them,
Like tattoos, pages of signs full of temptation.

7. Thus you were left perplexed, filled with longing,
Calling out to forms long worn by the years.

8. When will a stirring lament for the dwellers
Leave behind in the heart of the noble one sorrows?

9. After you had known them as a meadow for the glance,
They became a wasteland for the desolate eye.

10. In them the maidens were like necklaces of pearls
That lodged in oyster shells and took refuge.

11. My friend, will you aid me in my weeping
Or do you consider it fine not to give aid?

12. Lend me cares that know no end to their tears—
I will lend them to you when I borrow cares from you.

13. For shedding tears over the concerns of those in love
Often brings on many more concerns.

14. Unless release me from what once bound you to me—
It pleases you not to keep faith or show loyalty.

15. Were you not the companion of the noble soul through whom
The orchards of bounty put forth verdant branches,

16. And who built strongholds, by God’s true religion,
Against abhorred heresies and innovations?

17. He is the one whose honor the slanderer’s mouth rent,
Yet he was no miser with treasures of worth.

18. The rulers hastened to confer authority on him
When authority's maintenance was their duty.

19. May God soon guide aright the Mahdi's steps toward him—
Steps followed by wisdom, composure, and calm.

20. May God soon grant success to the eyes of the rightly guided
And foil the party of misguidance and their eyes.

21. Thus the lives of those rightly guided were made stable by him
While the misguided were left wavering and frail.

22. He held fast to the brilliant Sunna and did not
Befriend those who brought novelty to religion.

23. He was not deterred from aiding the truth by estrangement
Or by the resolve of aggressors, impotent and vile.

24. Say to the one who censures him, “He left his homeland,
His family, did what is disgraceful”—

25. “You have thought ill of the noble soul. Can it be hoped
That one who thinks ill of the noble will prosper?”

26. He came to a people who, out of desire for him, became
Fathers to him, though they were his cousins.

27. He came to the two Hasans, who loved him dearly,
And so became the protected companion of the noble ones.

28. He came to his family until he made the love of books reign among them
And became a companion to the people of purity.

29. And say to one who spurns him though he strings verses:
“Sweat will pour if frowning lasts long on our brows.”

30. Do you not know that poetry was his first cradle among us
And that we are adorned with all kinds of knowledge?”

31. And say to one who faulted and maligned him, “Be careful!
Prolonged safety from others’ blame tries one’s patience.”

32. In the arena of rivalry he will be left behind
Like the distant Pleiades left behind the charging bull.