1. Oh, who will rain upon the barren years,
And for the throng reveal the Pleiades,

2. And for the horses come when they are disheveled
And ride them tawny or white steeds,

3. On the morrow when panic disperses them
From the enemy and the blameworthy foes,

4. Rumbling as if there were drums within them
To the clashing of swords or galloping steeds.

5. He gives them free rein to glory
And in hardship restrains their lead,

6. And for war sprinkles their shoulders
And rubs them down smooth or roughly,

7. Exchanging in them the enemies' blood
For the hilts and blades of his swords.

8. The moon of mankind has set and he was the most faithful
Of moons, an enhancement and increase.

9. So say to the heart: sheathe your sword and resign yourself,
And say to the eye: close your lid and sleep.

10. Misfortunes wherein I call not for patience
Nor summon it, nor call it to my aid.

11. Do mine eyes rain with weeping,
Or my ribs throb and stir my bed?

12. As if the branding iron flashed within it,
Scorching my heart with its live coal.

13. Of the people dear they filled the nights
To their morrows with bounty and habit,

14. And pitched in the desolate parts of every misfortune
The breasts of heroes and the dark blues of mourning.

15. When evil befell the abodes of wrong
They shunned them and sought refuge in the lands.

16. They are the towering mountain over the enemies
When time pelteth it with hailstones.

17. They have virtue enough, if you search it out,
To kindle flame and ignite tinder.

18. They have a pride that protects them from injustice
And a view that relieves the most grievous distress,

19. And oaths which, when they rain bounty,
Make you deem all mankind noble steeds.

20. You see the youth's purpose within them obeyed
And the man's word 'mongst them regarded,

21. And they have attained the utmost
Of its summits, but not attained their goal.

22. The passage of nights has worn away all of them,
Leaving neither all nor individual.

23. Your loss has left no heart disdainful
In its sorrow, nor eye inanimate.

24. As if after you the people were in darkness,
Or the days had donned mourning clothes.

25. And I had hoped to gain your friendship, but
Time has profited me, and nothing profits.

26. If your kindred had not wept for you,
I would have wept for you out of love.

27. I grieve to fold you away unavenged
And remove myself from you, distant or estranged.

28. Hard it was for Abu ‘Ali when misfortunes
Reached what they intended for the noble ones.

29. He is the fate whose hands demolished
Thamud in their citadels and Aad,

30. And made totter all who carried lofty burdens,
And lamed all who mounted the steeds.

31. He strips bare the backs of our great numbers
And assaults the tallest of our pillars.

32. Thus is time: if it leaves a little,
It renders the rest again and repeats.

33. While a man gathers its fruits,
Until it returns to shred him like tatters,

34. And the nearest you see it diminish aught
Is when it is said "he has fully grown."

35. And we know it will defraud us over and over
With the sign that it has throttled us once.

36. And tears avail not for a lost one,
Even if they wash the black from the eye.

37. You were girded with a sword against the foes
Frightful upon the enemies when it was unsheathed.

38. But fate vied with you in its strokes,
So the blade snapped and the scabbard split.

39. Call then today other than Abu Shuja‘,
And forbid that Abu Shuja' be called.

40. Heap none but the clouds toward him,
Hard it is for seats to be led.

41. Squalls from the winds of the valley roared,
Against the towering mountains and thunder.

42. They swelled with them as the pond swells, until
When they rumbled aloud they unleashed the torrents.

43. Lightning flashed on either side of them
As if they split and rejoined.

44. As if with them a driver goaded startled she-camels
And slapped the white-flanked herd to a gallop.

45. So O people, honour him with earth
And for his greatest sake I pray for rain.

46. But no rain can reach him—I only found
In my heart a cistern for it.