1. Gray hair untimely appears,
An illness, though the cure be slow.

2. Before white hair, how many tears in your heart?
Alas, blackness cannot be removed by white.

3. Had he who was killed remained as he was,
I would be satisfied, but he progresses.

4. Or if he was pleased to have youth with him,
I would be content, but his troops are cold.

5. Or had not the loss of youth been a deficiency,
Enemies and enviers would not gloat.

6. Forty years of companionship did not make me gray,
How could it, when birth did not know it?

7. Rather, other events made me gray,
Driving out the family of the Prophet Shaddad.

8. Misfortunes clothe their women in mourning,
Their honor in grief forevermore.

9. O my masters of Muhammad’s family,
You are my custom though custom has gone.

10. Each one has provision showing his burden,
While your provision on Judgment Day is generosity.

11. You are God’s lamp in the darkness of night,
If only the lost traveler knew.

12. You are the ships of salvation, raising
Degrees on the day witnesses are brought.

13. The Prophet was sent when no beacon of guidance remained,
And righteousness had been barred.

14. He guided and fulfilled his duty, not thinking of transgression,
While unbelief, without his swords, was but skins.

15. So his teachings blossomed on the tree of guidance,
While the harvest of misguidance was reaped.

16. Idols were brought down by him after their loftiness,
As if he were wind and they were pegs.

17. His vizier, his supporter, his helper,
A lion whose might makes thrones tremble.

18. That is the son of Fatima whose resolved mind
Is white blades whose sheaths are not still.

19. He whose sword's edge is not sated with blood
Though bodies pour out their veins.

20. He whose knowledge is never made common
Far be he from a sea that ebbs.

21. He whose might cannot be deemed too great
To be matched with any peers.

22. The angels of heaven were amazed by his war
On the day of Badr when the steeds charged.

23. When they saw him and fate obeyed him
Against those it sought to seize.

24. Did Gabriel relate that to Ahmad?
A chain of glory without chain links.

25. He felled al-Walid in a stance that horrified al-Walid
By its terror and the crumbling of bones.

26. And he made Utbah taste punishment by the sword,
With it the illnesses were decided and multiplied.

27. He attacked twenty who prided themselves on glory,
So they generously gave their lives and perished.

28. From every bright star of Quraysh his sword
Rose shedding blood from the clouds' edges.

29. Sworn tribes nurtured their offspring for wars
As if for their wars they had borne them.

30. A people, when time aims its blow at their place,
Fall down, and death with ambushes says:

31. They saw the Commander of the Faithful and were certain
That even foxholes cannot protect against him.

32. The knight flees, and the tireless hero descends
While his garments are bodies pouring blood.

33. In his killings was only a champion
As if his sword were threshing stalks.

34. The Prophet called you at Khaybar, O Ali,
And the people had refused to fight and turned away.

35. You took his flag with a hand accustomed
To habitual victories unceasing.

36. You made true for them a war whose fires
Later subsided, and the polytheists became ashes.

37. You made breaches in their fortress with your fierce forehead,
Like a pillar built by sitting.

38. You returned, your brow triumphant and victorious,
A guide for Muslims in guidance.

39. How many heads of misguidance you sought out
So their bodies rejected bearing them.

40. And remember, by God’s life, Umar, when
You succored him when means failed.

41. All were afraid, and no groups could stand him
While evil from him was source and return.

42. Until you rose against his body, saving him
Like tinder taking fire though having no flint.

43. You scattered the confederates with sharp blades.
Among them separation and happiness were limited.

44. Had you sought to capture them, they would have despaired, but rather
Your way is for polytheism to exhaust itself.

45. You possessed them on the day of battle but pardoned them,
As if they were wealth and you were generous.

46. A nobility pointed to by outstretched hands
And a pride in generosity loudly proclaimed.

47. A generality and distinction in Hashim
Whose resting place is the highest tombs.

48. A worship, if divided among creation,
Would return worshippers, all being worshippers.

49. An eloquence that attracted the Quran to its bosom,
No judge was ever brought against it.

50. A courage that when its bitterness continued
Antarah would not be pleased with it, nor Dhaddad.

51. And he married Fatima, and she is a virtue
Radiant, not annihilated by time.

52. He came with the two noble Hassan and Hussain, successful
For the two beauties, his star rising.

53. Going to Islam, he protects his hands
Unless schemes or deceivers trouble him.

54. Camels marched toward his harm,
Driven by grudges and envy.

55. After the path was opened and pacts broken
And promised time was breached.

56. O Basra, confess that perceptions
Were lost with you, shot down by stubbornness.

57. O Karbala, speak of our afflictions
And sorrows, if speaking may be repeated.

58. A lion Ahmad grew, and his successor,
Mauled by a dog that Ziyad grew.

59. He is not sated but by capturing his daughters,
His threats are terror and warnings.

60. Religion weeps and angels complain,
The heavens darker, and years solid.

61. No matter, God lies in ambush,
And filthy disgrace is driven to hell.

62. O family of Hind, if I stumble in loving you
And see my grandfather stumble, censured,

63. If I am not at war with all wars,
Then my fathers and forefathers are forgotten.

64. If I do not continue its curses, I have left
The religion of isolation and leaving the strayers.

65. If I do not prefer Ahmad and his successor,
Then I have destroyed a glory built by worshippers.

66. My masters, this has become my habit
In loving you, excellent accustomed.

67. I hope by it for gracious intercession with you
On a day when servants are herded to their return.

68. How many Shia listen to the magic of my poems
As if their days are holidays.

69. And loyalists who listen while their hearts
Burn, and below them livers crumble.

70. O you of Kufa, this is an unmatched
Patch on the cheek of life.

71. It was composed praising my devoted ones,
To which opposites and peers submitted.

72. I compose praising, for it is the key to piety,
By which divine oneness and reciting are adorned.

73. And if you are asked about its intention and place,
Then Kufa, Hira, or Baghdad.