لازال محتفل الغمام الباكر — Albohtry

May the teeming mass of early-morning clouds never cease

pouring over the quarters of the people of al-Hajir.

For many a dwelling there lies desolate,

many a deserted settlement, many an effaced trace.

Separation took heed of its dweller, and there lifted

from its people the slumber of radiant time.

And once it held companionable maidens—white oryxes

with hearts inclined to youthful love, and oryx calves.

O apparition of Alwa, how did you visit when we were beset

by sleeplessness that drives away the visiting shade?

A phantom visited us while we were in a wilderness,

barren and hard upon any visitor passing through.

It reached disheveled men whose slumber was scattered

by the evening marches of long-necked camels, lean as bows.

Until, when they stripped off the darkness and clothed themselves

in the trailing, gauzy fabric of dawn seeping in,

and cast toward the forks of their saddles eyes

half-closed with the languid gaze of drowsiness,

it swooped down and offered a furtive greeting,

while the sun glittered on the bird's wing.

We journeyed on while you stayed, and often

the one who stays is what binds the traveler.

Whenever they bore us onward, how many a tear

was turned back toward you with a glance of the eye!

The conduct of Emir Muhammad has revealed to us

a man of sound judgment in forbidding and commanding.

He follows no stranger's trail, nor is he seen

with restless mounts on a road that leads astray.

He emulates the nobility of al-Husayn and Mus'ab,

and, too, the deeds of Abd Allah and Tahir.

A people who held wealth cheap, until they became

of all mankind, the most entitled to abundant honor.

Lions in fierce battle; when the battle din grew still,

they were full moons upon thrones and pulpits.

They came on the finest front-running steeds, while the

contender raced and came on the laggard, the tenth.

O sons of al-Husayn, your virtues have always sprung

from steady, pouring rain and a garden in bloom.

Indeed, noble deeds began with the first

of your glory, and were sealed afterward with the last.

You follow Talha in deeds, and are but

traveling by night in the light of heaven's dazzling moon.

Among you, sand is a resource for one who vies in glory

on the day of encounter, and a tally for one who vies in numbers.

And gifts to those who seek your bounty, as though

they sprang from the midst of early spring.

If you go unthanked, you lose nothing; or if thanked,

for no beholder's eye has glimpsed the star.

Or if there travels through your courage and generosity

my poetry, then those are my virtues and my glorious deeds.

And praise cannot reach the farthest bounds

until the glory becomes the poet's own glory.