1. كفأ الإِلهُ إناءها

    دنياً أطلتُ هجاءها

    May God overturn her vessel—

    this world I have so long reviled.

  2. سلني بها فلقد قتلتُ

    بخبرتي أنباءها

    Ask me about her, for I have mastered

    her tales through my experience.

  3. وحلبتُ أشطرها معاً

    ومعاً مخضت سقاءها

    I have milked her teats together,

    and together churned her milk-skin.

  4. ولها مواضعُ نقبها

    ثقةً وضعتُ هناءها

    And where she had sores,

    I confidently applied her tar.

  5. فالآن أنطق إن سبرن

    تجاربي آناءها

    Now I speak, if they have fathomed—

    my experiences—her hours.

  6. هي مَن خبرتُ طباعها

    لما خطيتُ وراءها

    She is the one whose nature I learned

    when I followed in her wake.

  7. فوجدت فاركةً وقل

    تُ أرى الطلاق دواءها

    I found her a husband-loathing wife, and said:

    'I see divorce as her remedy.'

  8. عنها إليك فإنَّها

    تدع القلوبَ وراءها

    Keep away from her, for she

    leaves hearts trailing behind her.

  9. لا تعزمنَّ بها البنا

    ء ودع لها أبناءها

    Do not resolve to marry her;

    leave her own sons to her.

  10. ذاتُ التلوُّن ما أقلّ

    على الصفاء وفاءها

    Ever changing—how little

    she keeps faith with sincere affection!

  11. قلُبُ الخدائع كلّها

    غمست بهنَّ دِلاءها

    Into all the wells of deceit

    she has dipped her buckets.

  12. كم أنفسٍ ملكت بزبر

    ج حسنها أهواءها

    How many souls has she captivated through

    her beauty's splendor, mastering their desires!

  13. دهياءُ إلاَّ أنَّها

    جهل الأنامُ دهاءها

    She is cunning, yet

    mankind has not known her cunning.

  14. أبداً تدبُّ بها الهمومُ

    إلى النفوس ضُراءها

    Always, through her, anxieties creep

    into souls beneath her cover.

  15. خبأت خشونة غدرِها

    لمن استلانَ وطاءها

    She concealed the roughness of her treachery

    from whoever found her bedding soft.

  16. كالصلِّ لكن لا يصيبُ

    لديغها رقاءها

    Like a viper, yet her bitten victim cannot

    obtain the charms that would cure her bite.

  17. خرقاء تُدعى بالصناع

    يداً فدع خرقاءها

    Clumsy, yet called skillful

    of hand: leave that clumsy creature alone.

  18. لا ترجُ نائلها فكم

    قطعت يداً ورجاءها

    Do not hope for her bounty: how often

    she has severed a hand and its hope!

  19. وبهدمِ عمرِك قد سعت

    فلمن نريد بناءها

    She has worked to demolish your life;

    for whom, then, do we seek to build her up?

  20. اليوم ترشفُ زهوها

    وغداً تعالجُ داءها

    Today you sip her gaiety;

    tomorrow you struggle with her disease.

  21. ما إن حمدتَ صباحها

    إلاَّ ذممتَ مساءها

    No sooner do you praise her morning

    than you condemn her evening.

  22. دارُ الفجايع والروا

    يع ما أشقّ عناءها

    An abode of calamities and terrors—

    how grievous is her suffering!

  23. يا ناعماً حتَّى كأنَّك

    لم تخفْ بأساءها

    O you living at ease, as though

    you never feared her hardships!

  24. لا تطلبنَّ بها البقاءَ

    فقد عرفت فناءها

    Do not seek permanence in her;

    you already know that she must perish.

  25. ولقد سمعتَ وكانَ أف

    ضعُ ما سمعت نداءها

    You have heard—and most dreadful

    of all you heard was her call:

  26. أبني التي أكلت بأض

    راسِ البلا أبناءها

    O sons of her who devoured

    her sons with the molars of decay!

  27. أوَما كفاكم إنَّها

    سقت الردى أكفاءها

    Was it not enough for you that she

    gave her equals death to drink?

  28. طوت المقاولَ كلّها

    وتحيَّفت أذواءها

    She swept away all the kings,

    and whittled away her titled lords.

  29. ولكم سعت ببشارةٍ

    لبسَ الزمانُ بهاءها

    How often she brought glad tidings

    whose splendor clothed the age,

  30. فغدتْ على إثر البشير

    بها تطيلُ نعاءها

    then, in the glad messenger's wake,

    prolonged the announcement of their death!

  31. ولكم دعتْ بكريمةٍ

    والموتُ كانَ دعاءها

    How often she summoned a noble lady,

    and death was her summons!

  32. فاستُودعت جدثاً أرى

    منه أضمّ خباءها

    She was entrusted to a grave; I deem

    her tent more enfolding than it,

  33. وأرى الخفارة خدرها

    وعفافَها وحياءها

    and modest reserve her secluded chamber,

    her chastity and her modesty.

  34. وأراكَ في دارِ المكارمِ

    ما أجلَّ عزاءها

    And I see you in the house of noble deeds—

    how solemn is its mourning!

  35. مرضت له اليوم السماءُ

    بكاسفٍ أضواءها

    Today the sky fell ill for that sorrow,

    under a pall that eclipsed its lights.

  36. وبكت لغلّة مَن بهم

    سقت البسيطة ماءها

    And it wept for the burning grief of those through whom

    it had given the earth its water.

  37. والأرض أضحت تقشعرُّ

    بمرجفٍ غبراءها

    And the earth began to shudder

    under a shock that shook its dusty expanse.

  38. رجَّت لوجدِ الممسكي

    ن بحلمهم أرجاءها

    It quaked at the grief of those who hold

    its regions steady through their forbearance.

  39. وعرا القذا عينَ الزما

    ن لمن جلوا أقذاءها

    And grit afflicted the eye of Time,

    for those who had cleared away its motes.

  40. يا خجلة الدنيا لِما

    لقيت به عظماءها

    O the world's shame for what

    she meted out to her great ones!

  41. وغلطتُ فيما قلتُ بل

    يا ما أقلَّ حياءها

    But I erred in what I said; rather,

    oh, how little shame she has!

  42. أوَما على دار النبوَّ

    ة تابعت أرزاءها

    Did she not, upon the house of Prophethood,

    heap her calamities one after another?

  43. صدعت بهنَّ حشا الهدى

    صدعَ الردى أحشاءها

    With them she split guidance's heart;

    may death split her entrails!

  44. كم مرَّ من يومٍ نوا

    يحه تعطّ ملاءها

    How many days have passed whose wailing women

    rent their mantles!

  45. فأتى بقارعةٍ تزل

    زل أرضها وسماءها

    Then came a calamity that shook

    her earth and her sky.

  46. طرقت حمى الدار التي

    لبس الورى نعماءها

    It struck the sanctuary of that house

    whose blessings clothed humankind:

  47. دارٌ بها فتحَ الرشا

    د بخاتمٍ علماءها

    a house where right guidance began

    with the seal of its scholars—

  48. السيِّدُ المهديُّ أك

    رم من وطا حصباءها

    Sayyid al-Mahdi, the noblest

    ever to tread its pebbled ground.

  49. منه بواحدها الشري

    عة كاثرت أعداءها

    Through him, her single champion, the Sacred Law

    outnumbered her enemies.

  50. هذا الذي ببقائه

    حفظَ الإِلهُ بقاءها

    He is the one through whose continued life

    God preserved her continued life.

  51. للفضلِ ما ارتفعت سماً

    إلاَّ وكانَ ذكاءها

    No heaven ever rose for excellence

    without his being its sun.

  52. هو آيةُ الله التي

    كست الهدى لألاءها

    He is God's sign, which

    clothed guidance in its radiance.

  53. وأبو كواكبَ لا تضي

    ئُ النيِّراتُ ضياءها

    And father of stars whose radiance

    no bright heavenly bodies can match.

  54. أنوار وحيٍ لا رأت

    عينُ الهُدى إطفاءها

    Lights of revelation—may

    guidance's eye never see them extinguished!

  55. ونفوسُ قدسٍ قلَّ أن

    تغدو النفوسُ فداءها

    And holy souls: too small a thing

    is the offering of other souls as their ransom.

  56. هم أسرةُ الدين التي

    فرضَ الإِلهُ ولاءها

    They are the family of the faith

    to whom God has commanded allegiance.

  57. ولها بواجب ودّها

    صفت القلوبُ صفاءها

    Through the love that is their due,

    hearts attained their purity.

  58. بسطت على الدنيا أكفًّا

    ما تغبُّ سخاءها

    They stretched hands over the world

    that never let their generosity lapse.

  59. وسرت بفضلهم الروا

    ة ففصَّلت أنباءها

    Narrators spread accounts of their excellence,

    and recounted their stories in detail.

  60. وروت بجعفرهم لحا

    ئمة الرجاء رواءها

    And through their Ja'far, they gave

    hope's thirsty bird its quenching draught.

  61. ذاك الذي نشرت علي

    ه المكرماتُ لواءها

    He is the one over whom

    noble deeds unfurled their banner.

  62. ومشى على قدمٍ غدا

    وجهُ الحسود حذاءها

    He walked with a foot for which

    the envier's face became a sandal.

  63. ناهيكَ من قمرٍ على ال

    دنيا أعادَ بهاءها

    What a moon he is, who to the world

    restored her splendor!

  64. مِن بعد ما لبست لفق

    دِ كرامها ظلماءها

    After she had clothed herself, at the loss

    of her noble ones, in darkness.

  65. هو للزعامةِ صالٌ

    شرفاً رقي علياءها

    He is leadership's bold champion,

    who climbed its heights in honor.

  66. ما حيلتي فله منا

    قبُ أفحمت شعراءها

    What can I do? He has virtues

    that have struck their poets dumb.

  67. لو أستطيعُ إذاً نظم

    تُ من النجومِ ثناءها

    If I could, I would weave

    from the stars a praise of them.

  68. فهو الذي في ظلّه

    رأت الورى استذراءها

    He is the one beneath whose shade

    humanity found its shelter.

  69. واستدفعتْ فيه على

    أن لا مُغيثَ بلاءها

    And through him sought to ward off,

    when no rescuer was there, its affliction.

  70. واستكشفت عنها بوج

    ه محمدٍ غماءها

    And sought to clear from itself, through the face

    of Muhammad, its enveloping gloom.

  71. وعيونها بحسينها

    رمقتْ وكانَ ضياءها

    And through its Husayn, its eyes

    could gaze, for he was their light.

  72. بيضُ الوجوه غطارفٌ

    نسجَ الفخارُ رداءها

    White of face, highborn lords,

    whose mantle glory wove.

  73. في الشتوة الغبراء لا

    تغني الكرام غناءها

    In the bleak, dust-gray winter, none

    of the generous can equal their service.

  74. من دوحة وجدتْ بما

    ءِ المكرماتِ رواءها

    From a spreading tree that found in the waters

    of noble deeds its quenching draught.

  75. نشأت تظللُ في الورى

    أفنانُها أفياءها

    It grew, shading humankind,

    its boughs spreading their shadows.

  76. أبني الزمان دعوا كوا

    كبَ هاشمٍ وسماءها

    O sons of Time, leave alone the stars

    of Hashim and their sky!

  77. فيئوا إليكم عن عُلاً

    لهم الإِلهُ أفاءها

    Turn back to yourselves from the heights

    God has bestowed upon them.

  78. يا أسرةً خدمتْ ملا

    ئكة السما آباءها

    O family whose forefathers were served

    by the angels of heaven!

  79. فطر الإِلهُ من الجبا

    لِ حلومَها وعلاءها

    God fashioned from the mountains

    their forbearance and their eminence.

  80. لو تفرشون بقدركم

    لفرشتم خضراءها

    Were your bedding equal to your worth,

    the green sky would be your carpet.

  81. أوَلستم المتجاوزي

    ن بمجدِكم جوزاءها

    Are you not those who surpass,

    in your glory, its Gemini?

  82. أمناءَ دين الله سا

    دةَ خلقه أمناءها

    Trustees of God's faith, masters

    of His creation, its guardians!

  83. بين الإِلهِ وبينها

    وجدتكُم سفراءها

    Between God and His creation

    I found you to be its envoys.

  84. ركبت سحابة رحمةٍ

    من ذي الرياح رُخاءها

    May a cloud of mercy ride

    the gentlest of these winds,

  85. وسرت على الدنيا من ال

    فردوس تجمل ماءها

    and travel over the world from

    Paradise, gathering its water,

  86. فسقتْ ضريحاً عنكم

    ختمتْ به أرزاءها

    then water, on your behalf, a tomb

    with which the world sealed her calamities.