قف بالطفوف وسل بها أفواجها

وأثرابا الفضل المثير عجاجها

Stand at al-Tufuf, and ask its hosts there,

And rouse Abu al-Fadl, who stirred up their dust.

إن ارتجت باب تلاحك بالقنا

بالسيف دون أخيه فك رتاجها

If a gate was barred by interlocking spears,

With his sword, defending his brother, he broke its bolt.

جلى لها قمراً لهاشم سافراً

رد الكتائب كاشفاً أرهاجها

He revealed before them an unveiled moon of Hashim,

He drove back the battalions, scattering their dust.

ومشى لهاشمي السبنتي مخدراً

قد هاج من بعد الطوى فأهاجها

And he strode, a Hashimite lion in its lair [text unclear],

Roused after hunger, he threw them into turmoil.

أو أظلمت بالنقع ضاحية الوغى

بالبارقات البيض شبَّ سراجها

Or if the sunlit battlefield grew dark with dust,

With flashing white swords, he kindled its lamp.

فاستامها ضرباً يكيل طفيفها

ولاج كل مضيقة فراجها

He assailed them with blows, meting out their scant measure,

Ever entering every strait and forcing it open.

يلقى الوجوه الكالحات فينثني

يفري بحد صفيحه أو داجها

He met the scowling faces, then wheeled back,

Slashing their jugular veins with the edge of his blade.

كم سورت علقاً أساريب الدما

فرقى بها علماً وخاض عجاجها

How often streams of blood built ramparts of gore!

He rose through them, a towering peak, and plunged into their dust.

أسد يعد عداه ثلة ربقة

فغدا ببرثنه يشل نعاجها

A lion who deemed his foes a tethered flock,

He drove its ewes before him with his claw.

ومطحطح بالخيل في ملمومة

حرجت فوسع بالحسام حراجها

And a fierce charger with the cavalry into a massed host,

It grew cramped; with his sword he widened its confines.

ما زلت تلقح عقم كل كنيبة

حتى إذا نتجت أريت نتاجها

You never ceased to make each barren troop conceive,

Until, when it gave birth, you displayed its offspring.

ولكم طغت غيّاً ولج بغيها

فقطعت بالعضب الجراز لجاجها

How often it ran riot in error, its aggression persisting,

And you cut short its obstinacy with your sharp, cleaving sword.

ضجت من الضرب الدراك فالحقت

بعنان آفاق السماء ضجاجها

It cried out beneath incessant blows, raising

Its clamour to the heights of heaven's horizons.

فإذا التوت عوجاً أنابيب القنا

بالطعن قام مقوِّماً اعواجها

And when the spear-shafts bent awry,

With his thrusts he set their crookedness straight.

ركب الجياد إذا الصريخ دعابه

معرية لم ينتظر أسراجها

He mounted his steeds whenever the cry for help called him,

Unsaddled, never waiting for their saddles.

الباسم العباس ما من خطة

إلا وكان نميرها واجاجها

The smiling Abbas—there was no undertaking

But he was its sweet water and its bitter brine.

ورد الفرات أخو الفرات بمهجة

رشفت بمعبوط الدماء زجاجها

The Euphrates' brother reached the Euphrates with a soul

That sipped its cup of freshly shed blood.

قدهمَّ منه بنهلة حتى أذا

ذكر الحسين رمى بها ثجاجها

He meant to take a draught from it, but when

He remembered Husayn, he cast its gushing water aside.

مزجت أحبته له بنفوسها

نفساً من الصهباء خلت مزاجها

His loved ones blended for him, with their own souls,

A soul whose blend you would have thought was tawny wine.

ما ضرَّ يا عباس جلواء السما

لو وشحت بك شهبها أبراجها

What harm, Abbas, would the radiant sky have suffered,

Had its stars girded its towers with you?

أبكيت منجدلاً بأرض قفرة

بك قد رفعت على السماء فجاجها

You brought tears, lying fallen on a barren land,

Whose broad paths, through you, were raised above the sky.

أبكيت مبكى الفاقدات جنينها

ذكرت فهاج رنينها من هاجها

You brought tears like those of women bereft of their unborn child;

You were remembered; their wailing stirred whoever had stirred them.

أبكيت مقطوع اليدين بعلقم

أجرت يداك بعذبه أمواجها

You brought tears, both hands severed, at Alqam,

Your two hands set its waves flowing in its sweet water.

وبرغم أنف الدين منك بموكب

تقضي سيوف بني أمية حاجها

And, to religion's humiliation, amid a host of yours,

The swords of Umayya's sons fulfil their desires.

إن زغت يا عصب الضلال فإنما

أطفأت من سرج الهدى وهاجها

If you have strayed, O bands of error, you have only

Extinguished the brightest of guidance's lamps.

بهجت به الدنيا وعادك عيدها

وبودها لو أن تعد أبهاجها

The world rejoiced in him, and its festival returned to you,

And it wished that you might count its joys.

راقت محاسنها ورقَّ أديمها

إذ كنت فيك مدبجاً ديباجها

Its beauties delighted, and its skin grew soft,

When you, in yourself, embroidered its brocade.

قد كنت درتها على أكليلها

قد زينت بك في المفارق تاجها

You were its pearl upon its diadem;

It adorned with you the crown upon its brow.

ولحاجتي يا أنس ناظرة العلى

لو قد جلعتك للعيون حجاجها

And for my need, O delight of glory's eye—

If only I had made you the eyes' sockets [text unclear].