وعينك ما للعين بعدك مسرح

ولا لمزار الدمع بعدك من غبّ

By your eyes, after you the eye has nowhere to roam;

nor, after you, does the haunt of tears know any respite.

إذا خطرت لي منك في القلب خطرة

تأوهت من كربي وحن لها قلبي

Whenever a thought of you crosses my heart,

I groan in anguish, and my heart yearns after it—

حنين صوادي العيس ضحوة خمسها

روامي بالأحداق للمنهل العذب

like thirst-crazed camels at forenoon on their fifth day,

casting their glances toward the sweet watering place.

فقدتك فقد البدن مطرح جنبها

رواغي تحت الليل تخبط بالركب

I lost you as she-camels lose one cast down beside them,

bellowing beneath the night and striking out with their knees.

فكم زفرة لي فيك تعقب زفرة

وسرب دموعٍ يشرئب إلى سرب

How many a sigh for you follows upon a sigh,

and troop after troop of tears presses on;

وكم لهفة لي فيك في أثر عبرة

بقلب هفا صب ودمع جرى سكب

how many a pang for you follows a tear,

from a lover’s fluttering heart, while tears run streaming.

بكيتك حتى قد قضى الدمع نحبه

عليك فهلا قد قضيتُ به نحبي

I wept for you until my tears fulfilled their appointed end;

over you—would that through them I had fulfilled my own.

فللعين عين بالدموع سفوحة

وللغرب غرب يستهل على غرب

The eye has become a spring, pouring forth tears,

and outpouring breaks upon outpouring.

تركت لذيذ العيش فيك كأنما

يمثل لي عينيك في الأكل والشرب

For you I abandoned every sweetness of life, as though

your eyes appeared to me in everything I eat and drink.

ولست علىما بي من الهم ناسياً

تذكر حال منك في البعد والقرب

Despite the grief within me, I never forget

to recall how you were, whether far or near.

بقيت على حب يرقص بالحشا

عليك وظني قد بقيت على الحب

I remain faithful to a love that dances in my breast

for you, believing that you too remained faithful to love.

ولا تحسبن أن الذي بي هين

فبي منك فوق الترب ما بك في الترب

Do not suppose that what afflicts me is slight:

because of you, I bear above the earth what you bear beneath it.

لقد كنت رحب الصدر جلداً على النوى

فمذ بنت لا قد بنت قد ضاق بي رحبي

I once was broad of breast, steadfast against separation;

but since you departed—yes, truly departed—my spacious heart has narrowed.

وكنت على سلم مع الدهر برهةً

فصرت مع الأيام فيك على حرب

For a while I lived at peace with passing time;

now, because of you, I am at war with the days.

وحسبي خصم في الزمان متنازع

ينازعني العلق الثمين على غصب

Enough for me is an adversary contending with me in time,

wrenching a precious treasure from me by force.

ولو كان خطبي بعد فقدك واحد

حملت لوكن حمل خطب على خطب

Had the calamity after losing you been only one,

I could have borne it; but calamity is heaped upon calamity.

أغالب أيامي وهن عواكس

مقاصد آمالي ومن ليَ بالغلب

My days have betrayed me, turning back

all that my hopes aimed at—and who can master them?

ما بال هذا الدهر يعجم صعدتي

كأني والدهر الألد على ألب

Why does this age keep testing the shaft of my spear,

as though this implacable foe and I were leagued against each other?

لعمرك ما نبئت والسيف مرهف ال

مضارب إن السيف ينبو بلا ضرب

By your life, I had never heard—while a sword’s striking

edges were keen—that a sword could recoil without a blow.

فأين زعيم العجم والعرب أين من

دعي بفتى الفتيان في العجم والعرب

Where is the leader of Persians and Arabs? Where is he who

was called the champion of champions among Persians and Arabs?

وأين ابن أم المجد طار إلى علا

شرافتها تعلو على الأنجم الشهب

Where is the son of glory’s own mother, who soared to heights

whose nobility rises above the radiant stars?

وأين مصون العرض ما نيل عرضه

وباذل عرض المال بالنائل النهب

Where is the guardian of honor, whose honor was never touched,

who cheapened wealth’s honor, despoiling it through lavish gifts?

وأين الذي إن عطلت للعلى رحى

غدا قطبها ثم استدارت على القطب

Where is he who, whenever the mill of glory ceased to turn,

became its pivot, and around that pivot it revolved?

واين الذي قد عزَّ في الموت حزبه

وصارع حزب الموت وهو بلا حزب

Where is he whose company grew mighty in the face of death,

who wrestled death’s host though he himself had no host?

أرى الآلة الحدباء يحمل فوقها

رجال رسوا هضباً على الهضب الحدب

I see the bowed bier borne aloft,

with men upon its arched height, firm as massive hills.

ندبناك يا أزكى الرفاق وإنما

ندبناك للندب الحسين أخ الندب

We lamented you, O purest of companions; in truth,

in you we mourned the valiant al-Husayn, brother of valiant men.

وما مات من أبقى لنا بعد فقده

فتى مثله ضرباً شقيق الفتى الضرب

He has not died who, after his loss, left us

a youth like him in prowess, full brother to that valiant youth;

وكوكب فضلٍ عزَّ في الناس خدنه

فليس له ترب سوى النجم من ترب

a star of excellence whose peer among mankind is rare—

he has no equal on earth save a star among the stars;

جواداً متى بالجود يبسط راحة

يظل لها يغضي حياءً حيا السحب

a generous man who, whenever he stretches out his palm in giving,

makes even the rain clouds lower their gaze before it in modesty.

عزاؤكما والحادثات نوازل

على مذهب الأمحال بالمنزل الخصب

May consolation be yours both, while calamities descend,

amid fortune’s changing ways, in the fertile abode.

ولا زال ممطور من الروض ممرع

يرف على مثواك بالمندل الرطب

And may a rain-watered, luxuriant garden forever

wave over your resting place with moist mandal.