1. I move along with life though it has flowered for us,
To a land where is no shade or fruits to pick.

2. And foolishly we marvel at remaining alive,
Yet your remaining, o deluded one, is but leading to extinction.

3. I stood still while the foremost passed, so it saddened me,
And the neighbors did not blame except to blame me too.

4. And my fate called in another's name, falsely,
Yet I - though unnamed at first - am the one who was meant.

5. And how can we hope for the love of a day and night
That add to our loss what they take away each minute?

6. Our father, Time, makes our blood lawful to him,
And our mother, this earth, feeds on us.

7. Alas, the unhearing arrows came, not understanding glory,
Nor dreading the protected tents and covert places.

8. For our sons they exceeded in the speed of their flying,
Striking the unarmored or the armed and mailed.

9. They hit the essential parts of honored men,
Cutting them down for me though others were hit.

10. My loved ones - Time stretched out a hand to them, his beloveds,
A hand that never shook another's except to cheat us.

11. Their eyes saw the calamities as mote-like,
Would that the observer of them for us had been blind!

12. May God water a grave in Al-Khudayriyyah with fresh rain,
Till what the clouds poured on it grows intensely dark.

13. Turn, turn your steeds aside from the valley, my companions,
And go to it, salute the excellence and loftiness there!

14. Stop, strip it bare, and approach it step by step,
That what the loss of its dweller made slender may fatten.

15. Drawn out yet threatening, with its saddlebags broken,
Its white and black marker-stones cracked and torn up.

16. Perhaps Father Nasr will return a greeting there,
Though he could only do it if we enabled him.

17. My friend, though the earth lies between me and him,
In spite of me, how I wished the soil to be your dwelling!

18. I knew you to be one who refused and was defiant,
Then by what were you deluded that you submitted to death?

19. Let the announcer announce your departure, but I could not
Deny your day though it be the truth we ascertain.

20. So I doubted, in desolation on hearing him,
And refused sight till at last I saw clearly.

21. The worst misfortune strikes whom it will after you.
But I see each day after your day as mean and paltry.

22. I gained the full moon on the night it becomes full from you,
And plucked from you the branch at the hour it is to be picked.

23. You were the wide plain for my hopes to race on,
As though death had been gentle with you at your dying.

24. You tangled with one who grants no truce,
So he deepened the wounds, inflicting all he could.

25. Until an hour came whose pain will not lessen,
And whose skin, when scratched, is not soothed by being touched gently.

26. I continued snatching sleep from you anxiously,
Fearing for you, until what I feared fell.

27. And I put far away the day when there is rest
From the complaints, until the worst of what drew near came near.

28. Abu Talib, be patient, even if needy,
For there is no merit in patience if endurance is possible.

29. You have lost a brother, so keep safe his reward,
For God never guaranteed the reward if we grieve.

30. I have purified my love for him in tears,
Weeping for him and fulfilling righteousness regarding him.

31. Yet had he lived, our weeping would restore him,
Had we strewn cheeks in his grave and wailed.

32. He took pride in a position like his,
And it would be shameful to guard his blood and store it.

33. But no flank avails against a raider
From Time, except the flank that is roughest and harshest.

34. And whoever contends with events with tears and weeping,
Time wounds his eyelids and makes his ribs ache.