The Tale of the Martyrdom of Imam Hussain (a.s.) [the Kerbala Epic]
Part 2 - The Arena (The desert of Kerbala, Iraq)
* A sweltering, simmering, broiling land*
* Igneous, sultry, arid sand.*
* No bramble (or thistle) it boasts*
* A crop of humpbacked dunes it hosts*
* A torrid, baking, seething place*
* Even delusion, cannot verdure trace.*
* Exhausted earth's infecund plot*
* Anhydrous, husky, soapless, spot.*
* Parched fragment of a barren world*
* A glowing meteor to the earth hurled.*
* No cheerless, forlorn cactus grows*
* Hellish, blustering simoom blows.*
* The blazing, fiery, flaming sun*
* An eerie desolation; the valiant shun.*
* A spooky silence, ominous hush*
* The wind escapes it, with a rush.*
* The terra firma appears ablaze*
* The earth stunned, in a languid daze.*
* A vision, on earth, of a virtual hell*
* A stretch of furnace, a fiery shell*
* The heatwave diffuses thermal haze*
* The fervid ether forbids the gaze.*
* The primeval sands primordial heat*
* With contempt does inferno treat*
* Behold a dauntless, valiant band*
* Stands, resolutely, on this land.*
* The Profit's grandson; with his group*
* A tranquil Guild, not a militant troop.*
* In this sombre, dreary terrain*
* They, their reverence did sustain.*
Omar bin Sa'ad, the commander of the enemy's army came with 30,000 of troops. He made Amr bin al-Hajjaj az-Zubaidi the commander of the right flank of his army and Shimr bin Thil al-Jawshan the commander of the left flank. Izra bin Qais Al-Ahnasi was made the commander of the horsemen, Shibth bin Ribi'e took charge of the archers.
* "Suddenly a deafening tumult I heard,*
* Thundering of myriad hooves, converged.*
* A tremor struck, the earth did shake,*
* My tranquillity disrupted, I was awake.*
* Loomed, ominously, a host of swords,*
* Rush, headlong, did furious hordes.*
* The glint of tinsel arms appeared,*
* As their coursers they spurred.*
* My waves, in terror, rushed, did flee*
* As their identity dawned on me.*
* Their sinister countenance, hideous looks,*
* Depicted a pack of depraved crooks.*
* Their obliquity; their visage betrayed,*
* A flash flood hit me (was dismayed)*