1. Give me a drink, but not of anything other than my memory
At ease from tears in a cup of vigil

2. And sing to me with my sigh between them and this one
The place of your voice between the flute and strings

3. Do you not see how today all of it has blackened
And the night made it dark, does it not end at dawn

4. And where are its stars or have they hid themselves
This creeping misery, the selves of mortals

5. No, but it distracted them and made them forget their rising
A meaning hovering between sun and moon

6. One of the catastrophes of bliss that befell destiny
Could anything other than destiny have caused it

7. So I would find its echo without its strength
Perplexed by anxiety, annoyed by frustration

8. So that no arrow could hit its mark
Even if aimed with some bright stars

9. It is fate and no term was set for it
So do not say, would that I were on guard against it

10. It kills even Abu Shibl with his armor
Of ample arm, iron fangs and claws

11. It lurks on the peak of a lofty crag
With remnants of skulls and ruins

12. It calls out to the butterfly with cries of pain
As if deposited in the crevices of stone

13. An affliction for it each day here and there
An effusion of blood that yields no relief

14. All will perish though long their safety lasts
O you who bear war do not be deluded by victory

15. This is Ali, the age is astonished by him
Purity did not water him before he was clouded

16. Ill-omened fate stretched out to him but did not hesitate or regret
Bearing news of a strange disaster

17. Of the death of religion and world and all they contained
By the flow of nights and days it is indeed strange

18. O Ali's mother’s grave, did you know
That happiness lies between drinking and sleep

19. A female, but when they count her virtues
No virtue is left to female or male

20. She recites scripture and we recite her glories
Verses like verses but she was not unjust or hostile

21. She stands vigil in the night reciting and bowing
In its variations of length and brevity

22. Till dawn dispels her night alarmed
She fasts by order of God sincerely

23. As if her prayer niche and the darkening night
Are in the crescent's halo, the full and partial phase

24. And the houris emerge from every horizon
Almost articulating in listening and watching

25. You are the son of Abu Safwan, they all knew
The harmony of glory in the fresh tracks

26. From a tribe whom the passage of time
Only perfected through life's greatest tribulations

27. They have not gone, no indeed by God they went
Like treasures whose secrets faded into deceit

28. We inherit their legacy and partake of their bounty
If not for yearning for forms and images

29. A while, then their graves reveal them
Like buds burst open and shedding their petals