1. She denied naught but hoariness, yet she herself
Was the one whose tresses grizzled. She the roan -

2. Her breast quivers in her throat, while her brow,
Not my wrapping perturbed me.

3. Were it not for schism and their clinging to their faith,
The white-skinned would not be burdened with the black.

4. Have you forgotten when you walked in its darkness
And were alarmed when my kinsmen came upon you?

5. And you knew - the pact of Ráma is our pact -
Two lads. I have never aged from great eld.

6. And if you count my years, I am not yet
Rising to the number in my grizzled locks,

7. Which I reaped from a mole on my temple,
Calling them hoary; so the home answered its call.

8. Oh would that there were a return of nights with trysts,
Or a glance toward the valley of Miná!

9. And night-fires and every fiery site
Their embers kindle in the heart.

10. And to hunt them is sacrilege—
Fair to them are those blood-prices paid!

11. With heart of raging lion she judged me,
And glanced at me with eye of wild roe let loose.

12. And I saw Umm al-Khashaf chant her ode:
"Are you she who stole the gazelle’s eye?"

13. They freed the riding-beasts from the train, so they shied off,
Stilling my ribs with the first shy.

14. They lifted the tent-pegs—and every seeker of temptation
Yearns for you, while you alone are my temptation.

15. No barren woman has usurped your place from me.
All the heart is the portion of her who is most fertile.

16. You who blame my sitting gathering
While earth’s expanses spread for my rising up,

17. And see men all propagating
With friends, then blame me for my solitude,

18. Excuse your brother, for no sun-filled place is abandoned
Till umbrella’s shade contracts from it.

19. How can I admit the friend and how can I
Distinguish ‘twixt my love from my hate?

20. Yet my enemies’ hearts which I dread
Are fettered for me in bodies of loved ones.

21. Mirage danced, distracting me from dancer—
Its affection shed behind a smile.

22. And I saw a gaper I thought puckering for my kiss.
It was but a yawn, while I leaned in for one!

23. Time bore the treacherous—I see not
A mother of loyalty but the pathetic blinking doe.

24. And I jested that the base have grown fat, but in truth
Ambitions’ abasement eroded my pride’s height.

25. Each body has its woe in leanness,
And my body’s bane is imbalance in my resolve.

26. The false suppositions speak truth
In al-Husayn, and excellence she declared!

27. Glory impregnated a cloud in the sky—
She gave birth from it a land’s rains encompassing.

28. I water dried lips and her hands whitened,
Cool, blackened hearth rubble.

29. Exultant he brought green of his bounty,
Reviving the meadows’ drought-stricken barrens.

30. The youth accompanied us, parting gentle zephyrs
Fertile, palms’ lengths surpassing the staff’s.

31. His days’ prime were guaranteed glory’s foremost,
Reviving all perished excellence.

32. Glory to Banú ‘Abd al-Rahím, for fruits
Are plucked according to the soil’s goodness.

33. For you all are forebears of glory—but this wing
Added further, soaring to the peak.

34. Leadership came to be from you in one man
Numbers multiplied when dearth was expected.

35. She yielded her hand to him, brows
Scenting without her coquetry humbling.

36. Since assuming it while still refractory,
She cast her staff aside for the stance, bent.

37. Branded by you, so whoever hangs claim to it—
His pretense exposed by the brand’s scar.

38. Her nakedness was clothed from him in a noble scion—
Facile, dignified, under shields unfathomed.

39. Vigilant, grasping opportunities from his lids—
Foresight and avoiding chances slim.

40. His heart trusts not in self-neglect
Regarding what he tended, if the herd’s keeper slept.

41. Matters perplex, yet he possesses of his thoughts
A sun, when events don darkened.

42. And he hits the mark improvising at the onset
Of notions by every fermenter secreted.

43. His years’ smooth track follows regrets—
No roughness there from scraping remorse.

44. None gathered the realm’s mantle but his thought
After its hem’s strands dispersed asunder.

45. He skimmed the shells from its basin and quenched
At echo’s length, healing with the first drink.

46. After foes winked, flouting his estate,
And deemed his step for stumbling apt—

47. Many a spark at first, yet a blaze
Fueled in al-Husayn, perfection achieved!

48. You shielded him with the mettle of armored assaults,
No common attacks, and the weakling’s yield.

49. When the judicious stripped naked, the lad’s
Fortune clung to the range of the nimble’s stride.

50. Those occupying your station bring perdition—
Their Indian blades never blunted.

51. Seeking heaven, neither did they rise to it,
Nor slack grip, nor heaven lowered itself.

52. The estranged’s wish to walk far, had it
Greeted him, stumbling over its rope cords.

53. The mounts deserted the caravan’s journey,
Sands expansive delivered to barren shrubs.

54. One doubting fortune’s stumble would ransom you
Usurping glory in the melee slipped.

55. Never did an absentmind return from his senses
Except to see the world addled by him.

56. His hands were restrained—what cares the questioner
If they stint from a lord or slackened?

57. I see the ministry, none rivals its bending twigs
Save you, despite the varying natures.

58. The tottering requests you steady its saddlecloth
Slippery—its horsemen scattered piecemeal.

59. Your back yearns for its assembly’s chest, and how
Bosoms complained of backs, combusting!

60. And if I glance back at matters, I see them
Hoarded for you amidst my looking round.

61. What family, when its bird’s auspices sleep,
Speak truth in visiting with first rebuff?

62. There, remember to tell me of your welfare,
And preserve lingering from my company.

63. If the deaf were told of you, O Banú ‘Abd al-Rahím,
By an interlocutor, they would incline an ear!

64. Or heaven substituted its fallen stars for you,
Their lights slipping for nothing shed.

65. Givers—if your hands shook the zephyrs’ hands,
Shying, the living wind would feel shame!

66. Orators—if the mother of eloquence adored lovingly ‘midst you,
She would be stricken dumb from awe!

67. Your mouths intimate with the Fatiha of scripture,
God’s victories attained, decisive gained!

68. For you my hunting bows, and the valley of Hunazla honeyed,
Bees stirred once more, and my solitude kindled.

69. You censured me sincerely with affection
And good company in my most straitened days.

70. You gave me pasture, so I fattened in your meadows,
Time suffices me the favor of scrimped provender.

71. I pray, and my father went absent, my clan diminished,
So your triumph responds unto my prayers.

72. And whenever the nights confine me to an expanse,
You rise up to widen the range for me.

73. Wondrous is praise! I made you its object,
My sole return therein after my strains waned.

74. I banned it a time, so you alone remained
‘Mid those the dust carried in dissolution.

75. It is a gem no deep-diver by thought
Can know—where embedded lies the pearl.

76. Its meaning rings true and its words intact,
As does its prosody—the rest are defects.

77. How many addresses with his hands’ most precious
A maiden, excusing her, while he my daughter!

78. I gave away brides in plenty you graced me,
Son-in-law ennobled and kinsmen blameless.

79. Safeguarded through her chastity from defects,
The riding-camel’s beauty faulting the obstinate.

80. She played proud, stumbling not but by charm,
Neither sneezing but others bless her too.

81. A community for you in plenty you grant,
Esteemed in your eyes the sanctity of free women.

82. Delivered from schism’s rarities her births
In one nation—and her friendships another.

83. She stretched to Sásán her veins’ vintage,
While for her ‘Adnán decreed the Arabic tongue.

84. Let the envier incline his ear—he thanks it
In delight, wishing if she fall mute!

85. Each day of life’s crier she escorts,
Announcing bliss—and if pains come, she comes.

86. Quoting for you the two-horned’s quotation
Venerably—and its publication ennobles the eminent.

87. You praised her exemplars in bygone eras,
And if any remain, they shall yet be praised!