Tell me O’ Muharram… how can I forget him?
Whenever I’m thirsty… I send blessings on him
* * *
Today I feel like I’ve lost something I adore
And I don’t know why but from my eyes my tears pour
I’m hurt by a pain that I’ve been hurt by before
And I realise that Muharram is at my door
Muharram is knocking… and my soul is aching
He brings thirsty children… and now hearts are breaking
* * *
O’ Muharram the candle of Hussain you’ve lit
Whatever has an eye today finds its eye wet
The tears that flow remind the eyes that may forget
These are the days when with the sword Hussain had met
What a painful ten days… Shimr’s sword on him preys
When he severs his neck… the whole of the Earth sways
* * *
When I remember him the tears from my eyes burst
I wish that these tears could flow to soothe Hussain’s thirst
Whenever I drink and his killers I have cursed
I wish that before I drink Hussain could drink first
How could he die thirsty… but water comes to me
How can water still flow… what a calamity
* * *
I cry into my hand and my hand each tear harms
The tears that flow in my hands flow till my forearms
And when I look into the tears upon my palms
Looking back at me is the one with severed arms
Ten days and every day… hurts more than yesterday
Before the tenth I cry… Lord take my soul away
* * *
O’ Muharram you come and bring us together
But I beg you don’t leave us before Ashura
I don’t want to see Zainab with no protector
I don’t want to see Hussain’s chest meeting Shimr
O’ month what have you done… you come and you’ll be gone
But heads will be on spears… Zainab will have no-one
* * *
(London – 24/09/14)