1. God be your neighbor, for my tears flow
O one who makes homelands and dwellings desolate

2. When you settled in a garden of soil
My eyes poured rivers upon you

3. How different is my state from yours, you are in
The chambers of Paradise while my heart is in fire

4. Rest softly, my son, in your bed
For you preceded me while I remained heavy with burdens

5. If only fate, when it would not leave you, had avoided me
So we could regret together in the race

6. If only the passing decree had delayed its return
So I could have weighed the consequences of fate

7. I was but a fleeting lightning
That gleamed then shed its tears as rain

8. I cry for you as long as the doves coo
And yearn as long as ostriches yearn for their nests

9. I cry with reddened tears though
Eyes only cry with fresh tears

10. They say he was young, but I say
Sorrows upon him were no less heavy

11. Most deserving of grief is a past that brought
No harm of hand, tongue or plotting

12. Far yet near, his grave nearer than our gatherings
O vast when joined,brief when apart

13. Longing for a branch that delighted me with its growth
Had the earth granted it time to bear fruit

14. Longing for a jewel I concealed
As if my tears veiled it in seas

15. Longing for a friend who endured my caprice
While confusion made me wander like a planet

16. He settled in the soil as if settling in bushes
So preoccupied was I with thoughts of him

17. I grieve that the ears that never tired of my words
Did not have their fill of this tongue

18. I grieve that you left before your thoughts
Could swim the seas of poetry

19. I grieve that you were kind to fate
While my tears dirtied your shroud

20. My son, if you are dressed in soil, it is
The fate we all share, nothing shameful in it

21. In your time, nothing made me happy
So go, as the sweet mirage departed

22. If my news reached you
You would weep in Paradise over my tidings

23. The sorrows of a mourner, the loneliness of one abandoned
A dwelling laid waste, the disgrace of a neighbor

24. My son, I have treasured you in the soil
So benefit your father in the moment of agony

25. My son, misfortunes have befallen me
So stand, from your grave, over my footsteps

26. The whiteness and goodness of life faded
Yet it left that upon my cheeks

27. Sleep soundly, for my eyes are sore
From vigil while the eyes of the night slept

28. I tend the darkness as if its trail
Clung to the stars with nails

29. Did morning cast off its coat on the horizon
Or did the sun of day divide its homes

30. Or did the last star of my night sink with a child
Leaving me no planets or mysteries

31. Woe to the vicissitudes of time against the youth
I was warned but warnings availed me not

32. I sheltered a coin for your sake but fate
Took its course and carried off the coin

33. My son, if you are far, the extent of our meeting
Is hastened by the currents of time

34. If you quench my thirst on Judgment Day with a cup from the heavenly river
For I quenched yours with copious tears

35. How can there be life when my wings are buried
Among snakes in deep wells

36. The Prophet carried the soil of Egypt and lungs
Clinging like clouds to the moon

37. Disasters have struck those souls
Calamitiesupon those bodies

38. At the desert their graves appeared
Signs that they were on journeys

39. I swear by He who made extinction the distance
Between us, we are in grave danger

40. Tell those whose like have passed
Where can one flee at the time of fleeing?

41. Between the darkness returning persistently
And the darkness charging like a stallion

42. The young are trampled, the aged join them
Borne down by the dust of old age

43. Why should I blame the course of fate?
Even stars are struck by fate

44. Neither can the circling sky escape decline
Nor the raging lion of the zodiac

45. The crescent moon shoots our souls with its bow
Yet the bow itself can lose its cord

46. Decline wrote upon headstones an argument
Needing no proof or denial

47. Let the discerning know the limits of their piercing thought
For its limit is a profound mystery

48. Let the bereaved show patience, perhaps
He lost hope and the patient rewarded

49. Where are the kings who ascended on high?
They stumbled into the graves, what loss!

50. They were mountains no claws could grasp, yet became
In the hands of fate, handfuls of hot sand

51. Where are the archers when darkness has covered the target?
They ignited flint but battled with sparks

52. They bid farewell to the clamor of war and darkness overwhelmed them
The summoner of death called them to the place of ruin

53. Where are the babes in the cradles, as if
Their swaddling clothes covered blossoms?

54. The doves confused their bones and flesh
Until pearls and stones were equal

55. If I show patience, a patient one still remains
If I display grief, it is with excuse

56. The clouds rained milk upon you
While stars gathered around you

57. The soil that covers you benefits me not
Though I pretend to comfort myself