1. After a long absence, my imagination knocked on your door
On the night of celebration, my heart escaped to your prison

2. How did it find its way, when its origin was lost
And the rugged slopes were cold because of the cutting wind?

3. On a dark night, it confined its generosity
To make the white nights indebted to the black ones

4. The white nights have the right to divide their blackness
As beauty marks on their cheeks, mole by mole

5. It crept slowly from behind a screen
Your house being near, though not very near

6. So it came to you, not feeling comfortable with its beauty
Nor fearing the screams of its lions

7. Living in the Abode of Separation, with a heart
Fluttering with fear like the fluttering flags

8. A house in which the pangs of death spread their nets
Then souls depart as most of its pillars collapse

9. It stumbled on the ropes of the steeds, so
The bells of its anklets met the irons on its legs

10. Shackles and chains and a silent, patient dark horse
Great tribulations are its necklaces, like its purposes

11. And it has a necklace, which if moved
Would shake the earth, though gently held

12. It sighed with a sigh that could, if it met
A stone, make water flow from the intensity of its flame

13. And the pearls of its tears wet its lips
Then overflowed to soak the pearls of its necklaces

14. So I restrained myself, though I had wished to embrace it
Its coyness prevented me from taking such liberties

15. There was no uproar from the death of its companion
Except the sighs from the misery of their separation

16. It left virtues behind and ahead of it
So its death was like its immortality

17. Like the sun when it deposits its light in the planets
Acting for those who benefit from its absence

18. There were many tribulations, but a confident heart
In God, and the Zaidi in overcoming them

19. With the heart of its love, the crown jewel
The blackness of its glance, and the house of its ode

20. The most jealous are envious of its excellence
Yet excellence is as worthy as those who envy it

21. It would not accept doing a small deed
Until completing it to the utmost degree

22. The sincere man’s prayer is the prayer itself
Complete with bowing down and prostrating

23. By God, had it guaranteed the eyelids of my eyes its protection
They would not have been lined with the good lining

24. And my upper eyelids would have been lined over my cowardice
With a lining above, and below with my cheeks

25. I would have chained my soul with loyalty and its straits
Loyalty is the tightest of all chains

26. And I would have met its blessings in the best manner
As blessings are met when they first come

27. I took the high road of benefitting and begetting
Thus I helped a gentle branch in its formation

28. Great deeds are like dye - their origins
Quickly fade if they are not renewed

29. The soul of the noble is like a gilded robe
When it frays, it is embroidered with cheek moles

30. And if its branches are considered in light of their roots
It will know its smoke is from its own firewood

31. The beauty of things is in their composition
The ring around a dove's neck is part of its nature

32. And human virtues follow one's origin
The sharpness of swords follows the iron from which they were made

33. The lowest of its sons, from a dormant birth
Begets naught but cubs, and no lions

34. A group, if they become prideful and you ransom them
They seek refuge in their unpolished state

35. Nonsense words, like extra letters with no meaning
Or an unnecessary alif found in a word already complete

36. I swore to uphold what your ancestors established of greatness
Glory to He who initiates and repeats it through you

37. O son of the Prophet's clan, you whose call
Arranged its arguments in witness chains

38. They point to you, so you sufficed instead of others
Your prominent state made further proof unnecessary

39. If the Trustee's sons are like celestial bodies
Know that you are its auspicious, fortunate star

40. They conveyed their virtues to you as if
Clusters of grapes transferred to their bunches

41. Would you neglect a soul that you are its essence
Like the part that completes its oneness?

42. He made you the means to its salvation
And your father the means to its worship

43. The days will never unwind after this
It suffices me that you are a breeze of its generosity