أبى الليل إلا أن يعود بطوله — Albohtry

The night would do nothing but return in all its length

upon a lover whose sleep is scant and slight.

Whenever the reproachers bid him desist, there flowed in succession

from him tears that would not heed his reproacher.

Perhaps nearing the dwelling will turn back his tears,

so he may desist, or it may soothe the heartache of his burning thirst.

And the mounts kept pacing swiftly, folding away

the distance with us, from al-Mala's rugged ground and plains,

until Iraq's open plain appeared, and were drawn back

the curtains of darkness from its waters and palms.

All day the gray doves along its sides

remind us of our loved ones with their cooing.

So a glimpse of his beloved revived a lover,

and his friend's return gladdened a friend.

Through the favor of the Commander of the Faithful and his bounty,

life grew fresh after its long withering.

An imam whom God deemed the worthiest of His servants,

rightfully, and the best guided to the straight course of His path.

His vicegerent upon His earth, and His ally,

approved in His sight, and the cousin of His Messenger.

And an ocean: seekers of bounty direct their eyes

toward kindness manifest among them in its abundance.

You see the earth watered with its rain at his passing

over it, and clothed in its greenery by his bounty [reading uncertain].

He came from the lands of the West in numbers like dune-sands,

the sands of dunes, with his horsemen and steeds.

So the face of the East brightened, until it seemed

the full moon had shone forth there after setting.

And Baghdad had donned her finest attire

for his approach, and looked eagerly for his turning aside.

But his longing and yearning turn him away from her

toward the breadth and length of al-Ja'fari's open grounds;

toward a home where his loved ones dwell, whose

meeting is the utmost of his hopes and desires.

A place whose gentle night makes life sweet,

as do its cool forenoon and temperate late afternoon.

By my life, the caliph Ja'far has indeed returned,

and every soul has a need for his homecoming.

Longing called him from Surra Man Ra'a, and he turned back

to it, as a lion turns toward its thicket.

although its pleasantness had been changed,

and its cheer driven from it by his departure.

And its extreme ugliness when he departed

matched its extreme beauty when he entered.

May his son Muhammad, the best of sons, be gladdened

by the arrival of a father of lofty, noble station.

He stands peerless in all the virtues;

can anyone, then, tell of his like or equal?

And indeed the heirs apparent, in forbearance and piety,

and in excellence, are among his equals and peers.