1. Stop at the abodes and call out to their ruins
Perhaps the dwellings will answer one who called them

2. An abode where musk exudes from its patio
And fragrant wood and reeds surround it

3. An abode for Abu-l-ʿAlāʾ whose tomb
Became too distant for me – would that I might see it!

4. Why do your eyes not tire of weeping,
Is it sleeplessness in your eyes or does hatred cause it?

5. My friend! Stop at the abodes awhile
In the dwelling of Abu-l-ʿAlāʾ asking news of it.

6. How can you ask a temporary land
Its broad southern lands and grassy knolls?

7. O Ablah! My heart is consumed with memory of you
And I see my debts have no means to repay them

8. O Ablah! If you weep for me bitterly
Men have long wept for their women

9. O Ablah! I am wretched, irascible
Fierce, when the piercing blades split open foreheads

10. Rams of rams drew near, kindling
The fire of war or plunging into its inferno

11. The valiant approached the valiant and
The tips of spears were bared of diverse make

12. There I stab the steeds of its horsemen
A stab that splits their hearts and both ‘brother’ arms

13. Ask the horsemen about my resolve
And my stand in war when it is spread

14. I increase its flames with the fire of my war
And stir it until its plain whirls

15. I charge against them amidst the blaze of its flashes
And am the first who lights its first fire

16. I am the first striking with Indian blade
Splitting skulls that desire only them

17. I am the first horseman to plunge into the fray
So I lead the first horseman who plunges into it

18. The steeds and horsemen know that I
Am the chieftain of wars – their elder and youth

19. O Ablah! Many horsemen have I left
In the midst of mellay counting its pebbles

20. Many bereaved women have I left
Weeping and mourning their husbands and brothers

21. Many a wife have I left
Dragging her skirts after her companion

22. O Ablah! Were I to meet a battalion
Of seventy thousand I would not dread the meeting

23. I am demise, and son of every demise
The blackness of my skin its garb and cloak