167 – al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān related to us; he said: Muḥammad ibn ʿUmar al-Murri recited to me some verses a man composed about his two young sons when he set out for the Hajj:
(in the basīṭ metre)
I forced my lids to close for sleep, but they would not obey,
And I passed the night with tears competing down my cheeks.
No rest is granted to eyes possessed by wakefulness;
How can the sleepless ever taste repose?
Muḥammad and his brother shatter my very core
Whenever I remember them as the camels press ahead.
Two little boys—our separation pierced my heart;
Never before we parted had I feared for them.
A tender heart whose chambers the fire of longing scorches
Until it is on the verge of burning up.
How I wish my pilgrimage could be performed near them;
Yet not everything a man desires comes to pass.
Let people not be surprised at my grief and at my unrest;
Whoever yearns for loved ones is, by nature, uneasy.