1. رأيتُ زلزلةً عُظمى منهبة

    على أمورٍ عظامٍ كِدتُ أخفيها

    I saw an immense, ravaging earthquake

    Concerning momentous matters I nearly concealed.

  2. في برزخٍ من برازخِ الكَرى ظهرتْ

    آثارها وهو حالي قد بدا فيها

    In an intermediate realm among the realms of slumber appeared

    Its traces; and it was my state that had appeared within it.

  3. بدا لشاهد عيني عينُ صورتِه

    تراه يا ليتَ شعري هل يوافيها

    The very essence of his form appeared to my eye’s witness.

    You see him—oh, would that I knew whether he would meet it!

  4. قالتْ خواطرنا من فوق أرقعة

    تحريكُ أفلاكنا منا يكافيها

    Our thoughts spoke from above the heavens:

    “The motion we impart to our spheres matches it.”

  5. لو كان يصفو لنا في حال رؤيتنا

    إياها خاطرنا كنا نصافيها

    If there were clarity for us, at the moment of our seeing

    It, in our thought, we would be sincere with it.

  6. لكنها مرضت نفسي رؤيتها

    وقد سألتُ إلهي أنْ يعافيها

    But seeing it made my soul ill,

    And I asked my God to restore it to health.

  7. شافهتها ومرادي أن أذكرها

    بما لها عندنا من في إلى فيها

    I addressed it face to face, intending to remind it

    Of what it has with us, from my mouth to its mouth.

  8. تحرّك الجسمُ مني في تحركها

    بسجدةٍ لأمورٍ لا تنافيها

    My body moved as it moved,

    With a prostration for matters not at odds with it.

  9. وكان فيما بدا مني لما قصدتُ

    من المواعظِ والذكرى تلافيها

    And in what came forth from me, for what I intended

    Of admonitions and remembrance, lay its remedy.