1. Your station is supreme in hearts, and greatest,
Your forbearance is most hopeful to souls, and most generous,

2. So it's no wonder that a poet's speech falls short,
And the eloquence of my composer is inadequate vocabulary,

3. And that I say something when the occasion is momentous,
And why not when what is hoped from forbearance is greatest,

4. To you, Commander of the Faithful, my address is made,
With a face of hope, bounties from you I hope for,

5. To Majid whom every glory-seeker hopes for,
The mighty, so none but the Almighty overpowers him,

6. I rode to him atop a desolate Yahma,
On which enemies saddle horses and restrain them,

7. Its trees are fruit and its stones are antelope,
Its plants are spears and its waters blood,

8. I launched in its plains every noble she-camel,
Whose lineage makes the cubs rise and crests straighten,

9. When she steps forward I say she's a bounding doe,
And when halted, I say the hillock piles up,

10. So her rider is either a craggy ascetic,
Or extinguished in darkness, covered in soot,

11. Adversity contests us, after what was tied
Of the journey with rope became untied,

12. Passing round the cup of weariness undiluted,
So neither are they roused nor made drowsy,

13. And they became in the ruffling of hair disheveled,
Like knotted dusty ropes in turbans wrapped,

14. Scorching pebbles in the embers of heat, after
The tyrant became, like a dog, followed and driven,

15. So the plains' swords shine bare,
Eloquent and mute from them, a clear sign,

16. Scribing the ornamentation of its letters,
In tied script or embellished Kufic indented,

17. You'd think the whiteness of the expanse beneath its redness
Parchments of a scribe, some gilded, some plain,

18. So when they reached the heavens' midst, and cried out,
I looked back longingly to the abode, and bundled up,

19. And my companions became happy with travel
As the cup circulated and was filled up,

20. Its wonted spirit undisclosed in the waste,
No banner rising high nor star twinkling,

21. Remaining in regret for excessive grief,
Though grief and regret do not avail,

22. Seeking guidance in its twilight's shadow,
And whoever seeks guidance in twilight gets it,

23. Whispering to the crevices of valleys, and the vale is silent,
Hearing no whispers and speaking no words,

24. While the gazelle says the shadow's barren,
And fires for warming are lit, truly Hell,

25. And the people's provision is depleted, so it's scarce,
And the water-skin for death is clasped to save but a sip,

26. And the field of death spread wide for its horses,
So the space of relief tightened and mouths pressed closed,

27. So the grief of misfortune to the miserable is green,
And death's birds circle those fated to die,

28. So when Karbala' appeared and became clear,
Domes wherein is the blessed grandson of worth,

29. I clung to him seeking intercession reverently,
As a seeking intercession supplicant would do,

30. And he became before the wilderness my intercessor,
To whom my twisted affair may be set right,

31. I dismounted where I knew I camped
At the door of the Commander of the Faithful,

32. A door where people's hopes meet
His benevolence with a smiling face,

33. Where hopes are equally divided with security,
And favors apportioned with affections,

34. Where the branches of glory flutter with drops shaken off
By the bestowal of generosity it elicits,

35. Upon you, Commander of the Faithful, my attack is made
With a soul at the door that does not recoil,

36. Chiding that it should seek kings for a need,
But from you it never chides or complains,

37. Stingy with the water of my face, but your bounty
Is an honor it attains, from the Almighty,

38. So protect my face's water from other than you, it is
Protected, so protect it, for life and nobility!

39. Am I not a servant from whom an inheritance was withheld,
For which you pledged, the firm covenant?

40. And the likes of me hides his ascent and lineage's pedigree
When a genealogy is shaken and stripped bare,

41. So you remained submitted to the kingdoms and they to you
That you may rebuild the kingdoms and they be secured,