Ashura Poems in English Explained and Annotated (volume 1)

Sayyed Ali Musavi Garmarudi : the Track of Blood

Trees I like them - In your reverence they stand firm; Likewise the water, It's the dowry of your mother. It's your blood brightened the honor, It's your nobility the horizon does mirror. The dusk is that niche, In the morn by martyrdom you did pray. In my mind thoughts about that valley flood The soil of which sucked your blood. No, indeed not, a vale so high I saw never. It is you, only you, in a downfall dear, Better from the vale itself hear! A sword which at your throat did ply Cut every thing into two under the sky. Turned Hussaini whatever at your side While Yazidi the other side. Now rocks and we! Waters and we! Hills, canals, meadows, trees- Some are Yazidis Else, they are Hussainis.

Blood your neck irrigated Everything under the sky into two divided - Even the color Resided in every particle In a dazzling garish carbuncle.

Else, not Hussaini nor does concur.

Your death, lo, what a gage!

Laughed at life and vilified its stage

That to the death desired life to page.

Your blood stood there

and stood the Truth in its care: One it is but a fare. Determination stood a security; Riveted the world into its guarantee. Although false espouses the world Truth in canopy of your name brides the world. Peep into truth if to see you And the grass when it is to grow, The water in a drink when it's to flow, The stone as challenges a throw, Into a sword when it cuts into two Or the lion when its roar the winds blow, Into the horizon which is bloody, In the smile of dusk which is ruddy. In a stand, In a demand. You to be found in crevices,

To be smelled in roses And the burning sun to be demanded, The early morn to be commanded. Should be opened heart of the night, Seeds scattered the delight And the winds carry your sight; To be plucked from the bunches' height. In God alone you to be seen, Whosoever upon Truth if to lean, Gory is he and his fingers beam The glow of your blood and its sheen. Eternity is the mirror Hung before you for every viewer. Alas, the sun, it is no better; Hence, we wouldn't utter: 'It is your looks' glitter.' In a cozy corner of history's conscience Guarding the Truth stands he is vigilance. In his smile tacts flow in mellifluence. Strong, straight. Star striking- Such the determinations are demonstrating The elevations if to be viewed by a human being. Lo, infancy of reason astonishes in a daze confusing. It is the lake of your own blood- A gateway of history where you have stood Holding a jug of civilization for human good To quench the caravan of mankind In a martyrdom pacing onward pressing the hind.

Your name disturbs the sleep under moon And deluges in water a Typhon, Lo, rests the law in your tone.

To battle your determination only fools prone, Your distinction is blood, only blood, blood alone. O, you, not a divine but in divinity drown. Death is vile in your hold As a fly a plaything among children's fold85 And Yazid, a pretext. An excuser if to be told, As though a handkerchief before you unrolled and you spited the filth of tyranny in its shroud and threw into the history's dustbin for other to scold. A huge blood sucker,90 Not an entity but a lier; Such was Yazid an idler. Sins personified in him And he to mankind a megrim. Robbery of name it is it to name him95 'A man' however the sense he claim. O, you! O, Glorious victim! Be upon you blessing! Not because thirsty you met martyrdom But your enemy is of such a sum. Your death red Broke Yazid's name into a shred, And made the sense in the word tyranny dead. Troops of words with barracks of description fled.

Indeed, defeated is every human toil; Battle with you is foul and toil. Freed are the lions in your coil. Your blood overflows the expression's soil. Beyond the words is the flow for history's turmoil. Out of the track of time proceeds as a procession Royal O, "Zabeehullah"! Divinity in your blood flows; You the "Ismayeel" of God, in you oneness glows. "Abraham's vision" from a dream reality barrows, Karbala where your appointment wallows, Moharram the hour of love when the love loves. And, lo, you are that sole person Carried forty days the pilgrim's season. "And We have complete it in ten" Ah, burns me the desire of comprehension; The incomplete pilgrimage pawned in suspension,

Gained in your kiss at the dagger its perfection; For the "BLACK STONE" virtual the best compensation. Begins the love's history, The red gains its entity, From your death-to life a treaty.125 Letter commences from your blood Religion found way the time you stood As you fell the truth stood And took the Right a mould good. Weakened the tyranny's base in your blood's flood. Autumn of your death delivered eternal spring,

Grass and trees in a pleasant ring, And a blossom of red at every branch to swing, Else, a dry fuel wood it is to the trees cling. Secret of death you have opened. No knot remained under your will's nail unopened. Wailing and weeping is the honor; You ahead and it entails you for ever. Beyond the manliness you are far and further. Prayers: you; intention: you; Oneness: you; and the one you; Oh, the verdure, the ever green' Oh, the red that frills the green Nobler than every pure and clean No human a parallel to you ever has been.

O, sweet but staunch and staunch but sweet, Gapes wide history its mouth for you to spit. You an iron arm, you the scale of balance- You sense of the Book and you the Qur'an's essence. In your looks interpretation glow,150 And the paces to the earth dignity bestow. And become a gravity for galaxies on onward grow Divine verses lip and your lips utter- Wherever you be in you heavens glimmer. Wonder! Oh, wonder! you a wonder'155 My astonishment ends not if I to ponder Foolhardy it is to fathom oceans by a finger.

Weep we- Gains your blood in our tears constancy Our tears a polish and sword in tendency Its seat is in the arena of tyranny.

You are a Qur'an in red Verses of your bravery wrote the blood In the desert as far as the sands scud Those sands turned into a field- Rich in red bunches as a shield.

Blood is the crop, blood is the yield Its every branch is a sword, a dagger Uproots the tyranny in the noon of its summer.

Hence, red is the field and shall he for ever.

O, Tharallah! The garden of Eden; lo, what a mania! You planted in the burning desert of Karbala. With fruits red, Rivers bloody from bed to bed Buds to bloom martyrdom's red And trees in a row forming a green shade. Only loveful eyes see with looks in love fed. Akbar - you and in a quality bred; And the palm trees of consummate red. Hurr ? not a person but an attribute. At that side of the river to contribute: He parted the caravan and its plenitude. Bridges to a man your word, your look; Towards you he is in a hook

As a food in a caravan for a cook. The brains in search of refuge Obtain from you light in a deluge. Desire for envy is a befitting subterfuge. Hurr's bleeding head and your skirt - a fate profuse!

Good is red after your martyrdom; Tears are daggers in your kingdom. Your pain is the pabulum For a journey - destination not datum The track of your blood is the way Terminates at the God's gateway.195 You are from the blood's strain And we in your love mad remain. Your blood sands were to sustain To gush from stones in a fountain. Oh, the fertile view-200 Tyranny has no enemy better than you, To a victim no acquaintance nearer than you. History gets brief in your class Hands do not meet at Karbala's pause, Galaxy of Existence there heats the brass; The worship moves round it, solarium draws.205 Here the word ends, End too to end tends, At you no end bends.*

*First published in Message of Thaqalayn, vol. 2, no. 1

L. 16. Hussaini, or Husaini, is an adjective, denoting association, or leaning, toward Imam al-Husain. The suffix -i is an adjective marker in both Arabic and Persian.

L. 17. Yazidi signifies association or inclination toward Yaz?d (var. Yazid), or having some of his disgusting characteristics. Ll. 21 and 22. The final -s in the words ?Yazidis? and ?Hussainis? is English plural marker.

L. 111. Regarding "Zabeehullah", or ?Dhab?h All?h?, ?dhab?h? denotes ?(blood) sacrifice or oblation?; consequently, ?Dhab?h All?h? means an entity presented as an oblatory sacrifice to the pleasure of Allah. Basically, the title was applied to Ism???l (Biblical and English Ishmael; also Samuel), son of Ibr?h?m (Biblical and English) Abraham. In the Shiite culture, the term is used with a connotation to refer to Imam al-Husain.

L. 112. "Ismayeel" is a Persianized form of ?Ism???l? (explained above).

L. 115. ?Moharram?, a variant form of ?Muharram?.

L. 171. ?Tharallah?, or ?Th?r All?h? is a title of Imam al- Husain. Granted that ?Th?r? literally means ?blood revenge?,

?vengeance?, or simply ?retaliation?, it occurs frequently in the prescribed ziarat texts to be read for Imam al-Husain as one of the titles describing Imam al-Husain. In the ziarat contexts, it signifies ?the person whose blood revenge will be taken by God?.

L. 172. ?The garden of Eden? refers to the Paradise Garden. There are hadiths confirming that the precise site of Imam al- Husain's burial chamber and sanctuary are indeed one of Paradise Gardens in this world.

L. 179. ?Akbar? lit. ?elder?, is a title of ?Al? b. al-Husain, the elder brother of the fourth Infallible Imam ?Al? b. al-Husain Zayn al-??bid?n. Akbar is used here as a shortened form. On Ashura, he was the first of the H?shimids who went to the battlefield and achieved martyrdom.

L. 181. Hurr b. Yaz?d al-R?y?h? was a renowned man in Kufa. He met Imam al-Husain at a spot called Dhu Hasm, and prevented him from reaching Kufa. He did this on a mission from and at the command of Ibn Ziyad.

However, on the day of Ashura, he realized the grave sin he had committed and decided to repent. To accomplish this, he left the army wherein he was a commander, and approached Imam al-Husain's front.

Having joined the Imam's army and expressing his repentance, he asked Imam al-Husain if his repentance might be accepted to God. Afterwards, he sought permission from the Imam to fight the enemies and was martyred. He symbolizes last-minute repentance, eternal felicity, and salvation.