أتظن أن الدهر يسعف طالبا — Al Sari Al Raffa

Do you think Time will aid a seeker,

or the days appease a reproacher among us?

Bounty has been lost, becoming rainless lightning;

and generosity has departed, becoming a false promise.

And Death folded away the virtues of Ibn Fahd, after

they had unfolded wonders and marvels of nobility.

If only Death, when it rose against you, had been a vast army

that filled the lands with spearheads and cutting swords,

so it might return defeated before you, condemned,

and you return victorious, praised for your character.

Resolve weeps for you; its radiance has always been

a piercing meteor in every darkness.

So does a sky of glory: whenever its horizon grew clouded,

you made stars rise within it with swords.

And so do precious favors you built up through gifts:

if they could speak, they would rise as orators.

In a resting place that holds al-Husayn, while his generosity

encompasses the lands, east and west.

If the dweller in a grave's niche could bestow bounty,

no seeker would return from it disappointed.

Abu al-Fawaris has aims in generosity,

which, once fulfilled, fulfill the needs of suppliants.

A king who surpassed kings in lofty aspiration,

through which the noble Azd gained still more virtues.

And a radiant man, fine in appearance and character,

like a sword, fine in luster and cutting edges.

And kin to the keen-edged sword; if he races

in generosity, he becomes kin to the clouds.

Traits like the breaths of winds that swept over

spring's blossoms, from north and south.

The suppliants sought his bounty, and he appeared to them

beaming, seeking praise from them.

And he saw Time reproachful toward them,

so he rebuked it with noble deeds.

How many a rising sun of his smiling face I have seen,

urging clouds onward from the bounty of his hands!

So I showed him spring's bright blossoms as praise-poems,

and saw spring's rain from him as gifts.