Sol 5.6

  1. Have you heard that mountains can be wronged,

    and learned whom the passing days have snatched away?

  2. Be stricken with grief: for him, across our innermost parts, fly

    flames, while arrows fall into our hearts.

  3. A calamity—death took what it desired

    from us, and thereby attained the prize it sought.

  4. It testified that shedding tears was lawful, and declared

    that consolation is forbidden to the discerning.

  5. We once deemed the stronghold an everlasting home;

    today our stay there is only a passing visit.

  6. The wandering cloud weeps over its land,

    and we say: May a cloud rain generously upon Dhū al-Ghumaym.

  7. If our loved ones scatter from it like the bands of Sheba,

    then whole nations may indeed be scattered.

  8. A gathering place the delegations left empty, now desolate;

    without him, its spacious courts and hill-forts lie forlorn.

  9. It stands deserted, though multitudes once jostled there,

    and empty, though crowds of companions once thronged it.

  10. The earth thirsts to its very core whenever there passes

    a caravan of clouds above it, themselves rainless.

  11. Where is the Azdī youth? Nay, where is that spring-

    like bounty? Where are valor and beneficence?

  12. Where are those foremost men who drank death, offering their souls,

    while they themselves were flourishing life—and death itself?

  13. Where is his peer in noble deeds? Show him to us!

    One dark raincloud drenches him, while another gathers gloom.

  14. Brown spears string the enemy upon their points,

    and white swords scatter heads from their blades.

  15. They bowed to the judgment and command of Time,

    though they were fierce adversaries—and judges themselves.

  16. A year passes among them with calamity’s bitterness,

    and every year arrives bearing devastating loss.

  17. Blessings—as though Time had sworn with all its might

    that they should not endure; and its oaths came true.

  18. They were watering places for needy petitioners; then they became

    fortified on every side, impossible to approach.

  19. What grieves me is that a gathering should be broken up

    where wisdom, knowledge, and forbearance dwelt.

  20. Its gardens were folded away while still in bloom,

    and its lightning flashes died while still ablaze.

  21. A culture of learning the hands of death have come to wrong—

    nothing but death could ever have wronged it.

  22. A shooting star—a missile for stoning—which stone slabs concealed,

    folding over its radiance, with stones heaped upon it.

  23. By God, what a man was bidden farewell, encircled by

    bands standing upon the embers of farewell.

  24. Through him their hearts grew sick, as though

    the mountains Quds and Shamām weighed upon their hands.

  25. Piety, fragrant-robed, adorns his resting place,

    and keeps sins far from its secluded precincts.

  26. He has become the bedfellow of men laid upon their sides, as though

    draughts from the cups had felled them and they slept—

  27. noble men whom, despite their nearness, no hopeful petitioner can approach,

    nor can any seeker choose among them.

  28. They are veiled from their loved ones, save for a visitation

    that dreams contrive through the false semblance of meeting.

  29. We tread the stone slab above them, while beneath it

    are noble, well-born men like gleaming blades.

  30. They sleep through the prayers there—though for so long

    they rose to prayer whenever it was begun.

  31. Ahmad son of Ali—the life-giving rain has gathered for you,

    and so have our tears; both pour abundantly upon you.

  32. Mountains of forbearance were leveled though they towered high,

    and waters of knowledge diminished though they brimmed.

  33. The sciences mourn him in their homelands,

    as do the gardens of those pages and pens.

  34. After you, I see the people of letters as a nation

    gone astray, with no leader but you.

  35. What has befallen your land, that it has been stripped of its verdure?

    After its freshness smiled, barrenness came.

  36. They said, “A beacon upon its heights has gone out.”

    We said, “Indeed—and the lofty peaks came crashing down.”

  37. Pure minds once flourished there;

    but now the minds there have rusted.

  38. It is as though prosperity departed from its people

    when you settled there and destitution pitched its tent.

  39. You were the finest blessing we ever won—

    if only lovely blessings could endure.

  40. May you never cease to receive the visitation of a smiling raincloud,

    from which lowlands and hills grow green.

  41. May the winds come to you at dawn, striking their cheeks in grief,

    and the cloudburst come at evening, its flow unceasing.

  42. Though the land that holds you has thereby become noble,

    it was through you that such honor was granted it.

  43. May greetings be upon you, with peace redoubled,

    as long as the salām tree grows dense with verdant leaves.

Sol 5.6