1. If fate could be deterred by force,
Or swayed by stratagems and guile,

2. My ties would shield you from harm’s course,
A band that spear-thrusts would defile.

3. With sharpened tongues like glancing blades
To sever the ropes of outstretched arms,

4. Men whose long robes the lances braid
When moving, swirling up dust-storms.

5. Horses that champ the bit impatiently,
Neighing with throats enflamed like flints,

6. Harnessed for riders fearing no enemy,
Who thrill to hear the clash of glints;

7. A coat turned purple as though dyed
In flashing blood in time of stife,

8. Shunning the herd led close beside,
Seeking far pastures rife with strife;

9. My guide through barren hopes that spread
Like mirage o’er the sands I trace,

10. Lost on my quest for that distant mead,
Limitless, pathless, interlaced!

11. In vain you’d seek through trackless wastes
For trace of boat or furrowed field:

12. Ibn Yusuf’s power fell in haste,
And crouched, humbled, with broken shield.

13. Now calm, when days of lordship fail,
He bears the yoke that would demean,

14. Offering submission without flail,
Going whither the times careen;

15. To him the peaks of glory bend
Who’d scaled them high in days of cheer,

16. Would I might show him in his end,
Call, if my voice could reach his ear!

17. Soon fades the power, though unsubdued,
That Destiny’s caprice allows,

18. And Dawn beholds it, once renewed,
Among downfallen triumphs’ boughs.

19. How Fate delights to taste my pain!
It drinks my tears as wine of joy,

20. Feasting on my most cruel chain,
My torment as its own employ.

21. It tended well my thriving sprig,
Then clipped my hopes when high they soared,

22. Swept all sworn brothers from my league
Save no tried friend to serve my sword.

23. I mourn you, Abdul Aziz, laid low
By Fate’s dark coils and armed guile

24. Whose cunning strategies you fought, though
Tongues spread confusion all the while.

25. Your seat of glory now I see
Marred by a gap beyond repair,

26. For who can stare down enemies,
Shatter their might beyond compare?

27. Or plead in words that penetrate
Past longing souls in despair cast?

28. Who can turn back the foe elate
When destriers in armored sheen amassed

29. Charge with the force of utterance hurled
Beyond all reach of levelled lance?

30. You were a flame whose vivid burst
Outshone the sun at dawn’s first glance,

31. Till foemen owned your overwhelming might
Seeing your deeds outmatch their best,

32. And envied him who bore your light
If he could wear it on his chest!

33. None in the throng can stab so deep,
But you in councils hold the field;

34. Eloquence bowed her neck, to keep
Your will upon her rein and shield.

35. The steeds of glory you bestride
Up to the summit, peak sublime,

36. A wisdom whetted like a blade,
And kindling souls that court the sublime.

37. Tongue that divines eloquence’s track,
Heart astounded at its word made real,

38. I warned aspiring peers: Stand back
Lest night o’ertake you past repeal!

39. Follow no shadowed twist of claim
That hides the truth when motives clash:

40. He whose tears are his morning draught
Sees specks like motes within his lash.

41. When baffled Fates perplex the sky,
He rends the veil with Destiny’s sword.

42. By him in earth’s embrace who lies,
By death’s betrayal of its hoard,

43. Who knows what Fate has set aside
For one who finds his grave too strait?

44. None escapes the strokes that chide
From Destiny and Doom’s own date.

45. We loathe dependence, though Fate’s brand,
For brave men scorn the blazoned shield.

46. Yet if I pay grief’s clearest debt,
Will my sighs’ flood forever yield

47. To remembered pangs that spur my pain,
My streaming tears in chaos flung?

48. Can you not hear my spirit’s strain
From your far lodging woven and wrung?

49. No, grief for you will never die
Though far you dwell, by distance veiled,

50. Sighs of the soul, the burning eye
Of one by loss forever stailed!

51. You will not miss while life remains
My heart’s intent and sorrow’s excess,

52. The moaning flood, the breath that plains,
And weeping pride cannot repress.

53. A brother bound from early days
In woods where aspens quivering shone,

54. Feeling your loss till end of days-
His wound for me still bleeds alone!

55. Time passes, yet that dart still stings
My heart, its barb embedded deep,

56. While earth about your relic clings,
Your people’s guardian in long sleep.

57. Your thunder rages through each dell
Like an alarmed Phoenician’s drum,

58. The sky weighs heavy, like a pall,
The stars in it thick-sown become,

59. Till you might think its flashing train
Clouds shedding on a meadow’s green,

60. Did grief for you bring any pain,
My streaming tears would fill between!

61. A herdsman, when the storm is done,
Sings your praise from the hill’s retreat-

62. Though we speak much, our words but glean
What Time proclaims, and must repeat!

63. Now Glory shuns its fallen tent
Restless, seeking where you bide;

64. Each instrument of virtue, bent,
Is cracked or severed from your side.