ما بال عيني أسلبت عبراتها

قاني الدموع وحاربت غفواتها

What ails my eye, that it has shed its tears—

blood-red tears—and fought its slumbers?

ألذكر دار شطر جرعاء الحمى

أمست خلاءاً من مهى خفراتها

Is it from recalling a dwelling toward the sanctuary's sandy rise,

now empty of its shy, oryx-like maidens?

أم فتيةٍ شطت فغادرت الحشى

تطوي على الصعداء من زفراتها

Or young men who went far away, leaving the heart

folding inward with the deep sighs it heaves?

لا بل تذكرت الطفوف وما جرى

يوم الطفوف فأسبلت عبراتها

No; rather, it recalled al-Tufuf and what befell

on the day of al-Tufuf, and let its tears flow.

يوماً به أضحت سيوف أميةٍ

بالضرب تقطر من دماء هداتها

A day when Umayya's swords came

to drip with the blood of its guides as they struck.

يوماً به أضحت أسنتها تسيل

نفوسها زهقاً على صعداتها

A day when its spearheads spilled

their souls in death upon its spear-shafts.

وعواري أجساد على الرمضا تقل

بها أكف الوطي من قباتها

And naked bodies on the burning sand, borne

by trampling palms from their [unclear].

صرعى مصفقةٍ على أشلائها

أيدي سوافيها برحب فلاتها

Fallen dead, while over their limbs there clap

the hands of its sand-laden winds in its wide wastes.

والشمس لم تبرح

بنواظر القضبان من قاماتهات

And the sun did not cease,

with the rods' eyes, from their statures [fragment unclear].

سقيت أنابيب الوشيج على الصدى

فقضت على ظمأ دوين فراتها

They were given spear-shafts to drink in their thirst,

and died thirsty, just short of their Euphrates.

وعقائل الهادي تقاد ذليلةٌ

أسرى بني الزرقاء في فلواتها

And the Guide's noblewomen are led in humiliation,

captives of the sons of al-Zarqa in its wastes.

حسرى تجاوب بالبكاء عيونها

قرع الزجاج على نفير طلاتها

Bareheaded, their eyes answer with weeping

the clatter of spear-butts amid the alarm of their [unclear].

تعبات أبدان ببهرج سيرها

ريس المقيد أوسعت خطواتها

Bodies weary in the false splendor of their march,

the fettered one's [unclear] widened their steps.

في أي جدٍّ تستغيث فلا ترى

إلا التقنع في سياط طغاتها

To which grandfather do they cry for help, yet find nothing

but a veil of their tyrants' whips?

أترى درى خير البرية شلمه

عصفت به بالطف ريح شتاتها

Do you think the best of creation knew that his gathered kin

were struck at al-Taff by the wind of their dispersal?

أترى درى المختار أن أمية

قد أدركت في آله ثاراتها

Do you think the Chosen One knew that Umayya

had exacted its vengeance upon his family?

تلك البدور تجللت خسفاً وقد

سقطت بكف يزيد من هالاتها

Those full moons were shrouded in eclipse, and

fell from their halos into Yazid's hand.

أبدت غروباً في الطفوف يديرها

فلك المعالي في أكف بغلتها

They showed their setting at al-Tufuf, turned

by the sphere of glory in their oppressors' hands [reading uncertain].

أسعى بها ابن أبيه بغياً فاغتدى

يده مقصرةً مدى غاياتها

Ibn Abihi drove them on unjustly, and thus

his hand fell short of their ultimate heights.

تلك الستور تهتكت قسراً وما

رعيت حمايتها بقتل حماتها

Those veils were forcibly torn, and

their sanctity went unheeded when their protectors were slain.

تلك الخيام تقضعت نهباً وقد

وطنت أمية ضرب مقصوراتها

Those tents were torn apart and plundered, and

Umayya set itself to striking their secluded women.

نسل العبيد بآل أحمد أدركت

ثاراتها أشفت به إحناتها

The offspring of slaves exacted upon Ahmad's family

its vengeance, thereby assuaging its grudges.

ويل لها أرضت يزيد وأغضت

خير الورى في قتلها ساداتها

Woe to it! It pleased Yazid and angered

the best of humankind by killing its masters.

لهفي لها جرعت كؤوس حمامها

حرى الجوانح في أكف عداتها

Alas for them, made to drain the cups of their death,

their breasts burning, in their enemies' hands.

لهفي لزينب وهي ما بين العدى

مرعوبةً تبكي لفقد كفلتها

Alas for Zaynab, while she is amid the foes,

terrified, weeping for the loss of her guardians.

بعداً ليومك يا ابن أمي إنه

أنضى النفوس وزاد في حسراتها

Away with your day, O son of my mother! It

has worn souls out and deepened their grief.

بعداً ليومك يا مفدى أحمد

فلقد قضى فيه قضا آياتها

Away with your day, O you whom Ahmad would ransom!

For on it doom brought an end to its signs [text unclear].

يا جد إن أمية قد غادرت

بالطف شمل بنيك رهن شتاتها

O grandfather! Umayya has left

at al-Taff your sons' unity hostage to their dispersal.

هذا الحسين بكر بلا متوسداً

وعر الصخور لقىً على عرصاتها

Here is Husayn in Karbala, pillowed

on jagged rocks, cast upon its open grounds.

تحت السنابك جسمه وكريمه

بيد الهوان يدار فوق قناتها

His body lies beneath the hooves, while his noble head

is turned by humiliation's hand above its spear.

اللَه أكبر إنها لمصيبةٌ

تتقطع الأكباد في خطراتها

God is greatest! Truly, this is a calamity

at whose mere remembrance the livers are torn apart.

أبناء حرب في القصور على أرا

ئكها وآل اللَه في فلواتها

The sons of Harb are in palaces, upon their

couches, while God's family is in its wastes.

يمشون قتلى كربلاً وأميةً

تمشي نشاوى سكبها راحاتها

Karbala's slain walk on, while Umayya

walks drunk on what its palms have poured.

يا سادتي يا من بحبهم النفو

س تقال يوم الحشر من عثراتها

O my masters, you through love for whom the souls

are delivered from their stumbles on the Day of Gathering.

ماذا أقول بمدحكم وبمدحكم

وافى جميل الذكر من آياتها

What can I say in your praise, when in your praise

beautiful remembrance has come from its verses?

صلى الإله عليكم ما إن بدت

وضح الصباح وقد جلت ظلماتها

May God bless you whenever there appears

morning's brightness, dispelling its darkness.