Verses addressed to a kindred tribe - Alfadhel ibn Alabas

Why thus to passion give the rein?
Why seek your kindred tribe to wrong?
Why strive to drag to light again
The fatal feud entomb 'd so long?
Think not, if fury ye display,
But equal fury we can deal;
Hope not, if wrong'd, but we repay
Revenge for every wrong we feel.

Why thus to passion give the rein?
Why seek the robe of peace to tear?
Rash youths desist, your course restrain,
Or dread the vengeance which ye dare.
Yet friendship we nor ask from foes,
Nor favour e'er shall hope to prove,

We lov'd you not, great ALLAH knows,
Nor blam'd you that ye could not love.
To each are different feelings given,
This slights, and that regards his brother;
'Tis ours to live thanks to kind heaven
Hating and hated by each other.

---

Alfadhel ibn Alabas (664 - 680) Iraq
Translated by Joseph Dacre Carlyle
Source: Specimens of Arabian poetry, from the earliest time to the extinction of the Khaliphat, with some account of the authors, Joseph Dacre Carlyle, Cambridge University (John Burgess), 1796

• Note: it's difficult to trace this author, but just possibly he is Al-Fadl ibn al-Abbas, son of al-Abbas ibn Ali and Lubaba bint Ubaydillah. He and his brother Qasim ibn al-Abbas were killed in the Battle of Karbala, October 10, 680 and born c. 664. Buried at the Shrine of Husayn ibn Ali, Karbala, Iraq