Sol 6.1

  1. Al-Mustazidah wishes deaths upon me,

    And they lie beyond the watcher of the walls.

  2. No, by my father: surely what I fear ahead of me,

    Of calamities and the great terror,

  3. Is a graver bereavement to me, and nearer

    To the Day of Resurrection and rising,

  4. Than the cattle I was bereaved of, who left

    Upon me life's crushing burdens.

  5. Will Udayyah not be content, short of my death,

    With the sorrow of bosoms within my heart,

  6. For four whom I lost, who were

    The dearest of the dead to my innermost heart?

  7. My sons—death's decree struck them;

    Is there anyone to shelter me from those deaths?

  8. It called them to death, and they answered—

    The span of their allotted lives, counted in months.

  9. And had they been a mountain's sons, and died,

    It would have awoken with its rocks bowed low.

  10. And if you would be content, from what we have suffered

    Ourselves, with a blow that breaks backs,

  11. You would see that calamities have broken in us

    Bones whose breaking leads to mending.

  12. For your father used to pray likewise

    Against us in ages long past.

  13. So he died, and God added nothing to him but

    Humiliation, with his defender brought low.

  14. We were bereaved of Ghalib and his father; they were

    The twin Simāk stars for every destitute pauper.

Sol 6.1