When I visit you it’s like your eyes are my own
I see your turban when I see your mighty dome
When I see millions here I see you all alone
When I step on your dust I feel your broken bone
I feel like I’m dead until I reach Karbala
And I come back to life when you’re shrine I am shown
I’m not alive in this world, a dead man walking
It’s only on your dust I feel myself living
* * *
I am nothing but flesh and bone, I don’t exist
Until I reach Karb and Bala and I’m in bliss
Away from your holy land I am in unrest
They say life is a test but that’s the real test
There is no use in my words or for my two lips
Unless I send you salaam or your grave I kiss
They tell me if I am good I will reach Heaven
When I get there I’ll just yearn Karbala again
* * *
O’ second Yahya, your love is just like Jesus
Just like Jesus, your love brings back to life the dead
Before Moses split the sea it’s as if he said
“Ya Hussain, Ya Hussain, grandson of Muhammad”
Yusuf would never have had troubles if he’d had
No brothers, just one brother like Abbas instead
Allah wanted Heaven to be in Karbala
So beside Hussain he buried Hussain’s brother
* * *
When I return home my two eyes are never dry
When I leave Karbala I swear it’s like I’ve died
Whenever I see your dome enter my eyesight
It’s like my soul returns and I’m brought back to life
When I reach the shrine of Abbas it’s like I’m blind
And the one with one eye returns to me my sight
My hearts asks me when by Abu Fadhil I stand
“How can you raise your hands to the one without hands?”
* * *
Your love so great, by one heart it can’t be contained
Every inch of my body and soul cries your name
Other people have blood flowing throughout their veins
But throughout my veins flows the turbah of Hussain
O’ Hussain my soul has become one with your grave
When I die my remains will salute your remains
When I die and I see you I’ll die in unrest
Seeing you headless with your infant on your chest
* * *
(London – 20/10/18)