رأيتُ نوار قد جعلت تجنى — Farazdaq

I saw that Nawar had begun to make unjust accusations,

And heap blame and reproach upon me.

Your last experience of love with fair women

Comes when their suitor's head has turned gray.

I cannot ward gray hair off from myself,

Nor hope for youth in old age.

Would that gray hair, the day it came upon us,

Had stayed away until the Day of Resurrection!

For it was the dearest thing awaited by us,

And the most hated absentee whose return is hoped for.

I have seen no worldly pleasure like youth,

Nor seen clothes like its garment.

And if ever youth were used to melt

A stone from the two mountains, it would melt.

For, Nawar, my proven valor has refused,

And my people in the assembly, to let me be disparaged.

They raised my two hands, so no pair of hands could reach me,

In rivalry for merit, nor in exchanges of abuse.

I amassed hundreds, and have been tested by

Ma'add, winning perilous contests for rich prizes,

With a steed that wins the stakes; whenever there stretches

A long course before it, it presses onward in leaps.

Commander of the Faithful, we have tested

All your affairs, finding them rightly guided and sound.

Know that al-Hajjaj is but a sword

With which skulls and necks are severed.

He is the sword with which the son of Arwa was championed—

Stricken Uthman—by Marwan.

When their eyes remember the son of Arwa

And the day of the house, they pour forth freely.

That evening when they entered without permission

Upon a man who trusted in God, kept faith, and was good,

Muhammad's close friend and a rightful imam,

And fourth among the best who trod the dust.

Thus in war there never departs from their ranks

A firebrand with which they extinguish another firebrand.

Through it their noble deeds are built and milked forth,

When their milk-flow requires tight binding.

And many a dyer of a beard that betrayed and broke faith—

You made his blood a dye for its gray hairs.

And many a bloody battle you witnessed on a day of fury,

Bringing a man closer to his appointed end.

There you see Qal'i blades and Madhi mail,

Blazing fiercely upon the warriors.

You crushed the heads of its youths, and it was subdued;

And whoever had awaited it took heed and repented.

I saw you when deadly fates clashed,

When the terror-stricken feared the engulfing dangers,

And hypocrisy unnerved him, and almost, within him,

The pounding of his heart tore away its covering:

You hold your own life lightly, and that brings you nearer

To reward for your soul in its Creator's sight.

Whoever claims to have granted you victory lies,

Except God, who raised the clouds.

The Lord alone has bestowed His favor upon you;

When a humble supplicant calls upon Him, He answers.

And if, for what you cleared away from them—

The affliction and torment of strife—

They repaid you with their lives and added

Their wealth for you, they would not repay you fully.

For I swear by Him for whom Quraysh sacrificed

At Mina, and made their riding camels lean,

Toward Him, with their hair matted, the camels sunken-eyed,

To touch the supporting pillars and the covering:

A bounty from you has indeed come upon me,

Like rain's bounty, benefiting whomever it reaches.

Even if I were with my people in Chinistan,

And had shut a gate from Hajrayn

Upon myself, I would see, son of Abu Aqil,

Your claws and a fang behind me.

Your pardon, son of Yusuf, is the best of pardons,

And you are the fiercest avenger in punishment.

I saw that people feared you so much that

They felt fear at your hands, or dreaded the reckoning.