مرت لنا بالحمى المأنوس أعياد

مع الأحبة لو عادت ولو عادوا

Festive days once passed for us in the familiar sanctuary,

with loved ones—if only those days and they would return!

كنا قضينا بها الأوطار في دعة

وطيب عيش فما كادت وما كادوا

We would have fulfilled our desires there in ease

and pleasant living—but neither those days nor they returned.

إني وقد حلت الأقدار دونهم

فالهم مجتمع والقوم قد بادوا

As for me, now that fate has come between us,

sorrow gathers, while those people have passed away.

هذا الزمان وهذا الدهر عادته

فينا وفي غيرنا بين وأنكاد

Such is this time, such is the age: its custom

with us and others is separation and sorrow.

إن الحوادث لا تبقى على أحد

وللكريم قناة ليس تنآد

The blows of fate spare no one,

yet the noble one's spear-shaft does not bend.

تجلد واصطبار كان وراثه الأب

ناء من قبل الآبا وأجداد

Fortitude and patient endurance were inherited by

sons from fathers and grandfathers before them.

تمضي على سبل كانوا لها سلكوا

أسلافنا فهم للَه أجناد

Follow the paths once traveled by

our forebears, for they are God's soldiers.

مما زعزعتهم يد الأيام حين سطت

وكف لا وهم للأرض أطواد

The hand of days did not shake them when it struck [reading uncertain];

no hand could—they were mountains anchoring the earth [reading uncertain].

نبينا وعلي والحسين وزي

ن العابدين بهذا في الورى سادوا

Our Prophet, Ali, Husayn, and Zayn

al-Abidin—through this they became leaders among mankind.

لنا بهم أسوة إذ هم أثمتنا

ونحن للقوم أبناء وأحفاد

In them we have an example, for they are our imams,

and we are their sons and descendants.

والصبر يا نفس خير كله وله

عواقب كلها نجح وإمداد

Patience, O soul, is entirely good, and its

outcomes are all success and support.

فاصبر هديت فإن الأمر مشترك

بين الأنام وإن طاولن آماد

Be patient—may you be guided—for this condition is shared

among mankind, however long the periods stretch.

والناس في غفلات عن مصارعهم

كأنهم وهم الأيقاظ رقاد

People are heedless of their deaths,

as though, awake though they are, they were asleep.

دنيا تغر وعيش كله كدر

لولا النفوس التي للوهم تنقاد

A beguiling world, and a life all trouble—

were it not for souls that submit to illusion,

كنا عددنا لهذا الموت عدته

قبل الوفاة وأن يحفرن ألحاد

we would have made ready for this death

before dying and before graves were dug.

فالدار من بعد هذا الدار آخرة

تبقى دواماً بها حشر وميعاد

The abode after this abode is the hereafter,

everlasting, with resurrection and an appointed meeting.

وجنة أزلفت للمتقين وأه

ل الحق والصبر أبدال وأوتاد

And a Garden brought near to the God-fearing and

the people of truth and patience—the Abdal and Awtad.

فاعمل لنفسك من قبل الممات ولا

تعجز وتكسل فإن المرء جهاد

Work for yourself before death, and do not

falter or grow lazy, for a person's lot is striving.

لا ينفع العبد إلا ما يقدمه

فبادر الفوت واصطد قبل تصطاد

Nothing benefits the servant except what he sends ahead;

act before the chance is lost, and hunt before you are hunted.

يا صاحبي إن قلبي اليوم مكتئب

قد كان عاوده ما كان يعتاد

O my companion, my heart today is dejected;

what used to visit it has returned.

تذكر لأصيحاب قد انتزحوا

عنا تناءى بهم غور وأنجاد

Remembering dear companions who have gone far away—

lowlands and uplands have borne them far from us.

مشتتون بأطراف البلاد على

رغم الأنوف كما تهواه حساد

Scattered across the far corners of the land,

against their will, just as their enviers wished.

بين الأباعد لا تدري أمثالهم

ما حقهم وهم جمع وأحشاد

Among strangers, whose like do not understand

what is due to them, though gathered in crowds and throngs.

فهفي على غرباء الدار حين نووا

ولم يطيفوا بهم أهل وعواد

Alas for those far from home when they departed,

with no family or visitors gathered about them.

من آل طه وآل المرتضى ومن الزه

را البتول لقصر المجد قد شادوا

From the house of Taha and al-Murtada, and of

al-Zahra the Virgin—they built the palace of glory.

أعزة في الذرا من هاشم وعن ال

كتاب والسنة الغراء ما حادوا

Honored upon the heights, descended from Hashim; from

the Book and the radiant Sunna they never strayed.

مموت ميتهم من حيث شاء فأر

ض اللَه واحدة والقوم أمجاد

Their dying ones die wherever they will, for

God's earth is one, and these are people of glory.

أبكيهم بدموع عليَّ سائلها

يبل من جمرات القلب إيقاد

I weep for them with tears whose flow falls over me,

dampening the blaze of my heart's embers.

تحسر وشجون كلما لمعت

بروق كاظمة تنمو وتزداد

Regret and sorrows—whenever there flash

the lightning bolts of Kazima—grow and increase.

وكلما ناحت الورقا علي غصن

وكلما خفقت بالواد أنواد

And whenever the ringdove mourns upon a branch,

and whenever breezes stir in the valley.

فيا بعيد يد بشار البشائر هل

وافت على اليمن إخوان وأولاد

O far-reaching herald of glad tidings, have

brothers and sons arrived auspiciously—

أرواحهم ونفوس كان فارقها

بالقبض للَه أجسام وأجساد

their spirits and souls, now parted

from bodies and frames through their taking unto God?

بأنواعن الأهل والأوطان من زمن

وكان من ودهم لو أنهم عادوا

Long ago they had left family and homelands,

and had wished that they might return.

فعوقتهم مقادير مقدرة

محتومها ماله دفعت ولا راد

But decrees already ordained held them back—

their inevitable outcome none could repel or turn aside.

مثل القريب وابن العم في زمر

طابت خلائقهم والسعي والزاد

Such as the kinsman and the cousin, among companies

whose character, striving, and provisions were good.

من الذين بعلم اللَه قد عملوا

واستغرفتهم عبادات وأوراد

Among those who acted with knowledge of God,

wholly absorbed by worship and regular litanies.

دعاة خير هداة مهتدين رضى

من سادة ما لهم في الفضل أنداد

Callers to goodness, guides rightly guided and approved,

masters who have no peers in excellence.

حدا بهم هاذم اللذات فانطلقوا

إلى مصير به فوز وإسعاد

The severer of pleasures drove them onward, and they departed

toward a destiny of triumph and bliss.

برازخ النور دهليز الجنان من ال

فردوس والعدن باللَه ما فادوا

Realms of light beyond death, the vestibule of the gardens of

Firdaws and Eden—by God, they have not perished.

فالموت للمؤمن الأواب تحفته

وفيه كل الذي يبغي ويرتاد

For the believer ever returning to God, death is his gift;

in it is everything he desires and seeks.

لقي الكريم تعالى مجده وسما

مع النعيم الذي ما فيه أنكاد

He met the Generous One—exalted and lofty is His glory—

amid bliss untouched by sorrow.

فضل من اللَه إحسان ومرحمة

فالفضل للَه كالأزال آباد

Grace from God, kindness and mercy;

God's grace lasts for eternities to come, as for eternities past.

فالظن باللَه مولانا وسيدنا

ظن جميل مع الأنفاس تزداد

Our expectation of God, our Master and Lord,

is a good expectation, increasing with every breath.

نرجوه يرحمنا نرجوه يجبرنا

فهو الجواد الذي بالجود عواد

We hope He will have mercy on us; we hope He will mend us,

for He is the Generous One, ever returning to generosity.

نرجوه ينظرنا نرجوه يسترنا

فمنه للكل إمداد وإيجاد

We hope He will regard us; we hope He will veil our faults,

for from Him come support and existence for all.

ندعوه نسأله عفواً ومغفرة

مع حسن خاتمة فالعمر نفاد

We call upon Him, asking pardon and forgiveness,

and a good ending, for life runs out.

وقد رضينا قضاء اللَه كيف قضى

واللطف نرجو وحسن الصبر إرشاد

We have accepted God's decree, however He decrees;

we hope for gentleness; good patience is right guidance.

ثم الصلاة على الهادي وعترته

محمد ما انثنت بالريح أعواد

Then blessings upon the Guide and his kindred—

Muhammad—as long as boughs bend in the wind,

وما تغنت حمام الأيك في سحر

فكان منها لحر الشجو إبراد

and doves of the thicket sing before dawn,

bringing cool relief to sorrow's burning.