1. The winds make it rustle, now that it is uninhabited,
Or like every truthful woman during a time of separation.

2. We used to call upon God, beseeching Him
In the mornings, at night, and at noon,

3. That He not take your life or that you be for us
The imam and the guardian of authority.

4. So He answered our prayers and rescued us
With the caliphate of al-Mahdi from harm.

5. O son of caliphs, we have found no one
Who remains for the anguish of the blows of fate,

6. Except the pillars, which exist
Like tent poles, quickly decaying.

7. So you have been tested with what you claimed for us,
If indeed you were for us in command.

8. How much in you, if your hands controlled for us
One day our bequests from vows,

9. Of performing hajj barefoot and fasting
For two years for Umm Ufayrakh in hardship,

10. Of them remains nothing but tongues
And burnt palms and red legs,

11. And they moan without compensation
On land, wherever they were sent, and at sea,

12. And they task the incapable, whose
Corpses have wasted away with the passage of time,

13. Until we envy every sufferer
Who walks with his greatest to the grave.

14. And the living wish that they
Were under the soil and the resurrection came.

15. And the dancing girls for every supplicant
From the crevasse of every deep ravine.

16. I have only spoken the truth which you recognize
In poetry, improvised and composed.