1. The noble and the resolute weep for you,
And the learned men of wisdom and the pen of the past,

2. And time sheds its coat in its valleys,
And glory bellows in its soft dunes.

3. And the mind praises it though the travelers regret -
Alas for the mind that praises the delicate trace.

4. And virtue is between inherited and earned,
So it is an enduring attribute and mark.

5. O absent one who darkened his abode with his absence,
Thus the moon dims after it the darkness.

6. O you whom it saddens us to leave behind,
Our hearts see everything after you as naught.

7. You left those bereft of patience or fortune,
For they could not accept your leave - yet the travelers are they.

8. The one whose seriousness combined leadership
And whose clemency combined politics and vengeance.

9. The one whose dignity veiled him before the veils
And whose pride smiled before the shooting stars.

10. The one whose lines on pages of apology
Nearly seal the heart before the mouth.

11. The one whose fevered palm healed the ill,
Private and public, Arab or foreigner.

12. He left and it's no wonder to say he left,
For he is the hot temper of the resolute tribe.

13. Come O dove, moan with the bereaved on a
Wet branch, stand by an ailing one whom no foot healed.

14. You reminded us, so perhaps he will give life, O Muhammad,
And wounds for their marks still ache.

15. What grief did you leave in the land of Syria
When the lineages and morals remember you?

16. What truthful yearning in Egypt did you leave,
O you of youth until old age afflicted it?

17. I yearn for a determined one, singular in resolve,
The nations approved of his prosperous endeavor.

18. I yearn for a pen trembling fixed
In the waving flag of standards - they knew

19. You stalled this and that when you traveled, and
Hope failed, no clarity or banner remained.

20. I yearn for lines the post carried in darkness,
With words within words therein.

21. And horses, night and the desert bear witness,
And striking, stabbing, paper and pen.

22. I yearn for a house of virtue that was
United in family - like a poem's composed abode.

23. An errant letter struck it with loss and grief
Changing it, so it's deficient and rent.

24. I yearn for the full moon among you, O clan of Umar,
The serving stars cannot match its illumination.

25. Its glories fell where life was ahead
And fortune a neighbor, and the heights inviolable.

26. Its face still moist with water of life and radiance,
It almost matches the shoulders in harmony.

27. The grave still concealed secrets in its heart,
Until the grave came and secrets crowded.

28. With the like of him the fruitless king boasts over
A past, though women are barren of his like.

29. My life, the plague surely cried out one Rajab,
Making the elegy an ear-piercing lament for the deaf.

30. And grief intensely afflicted us, then we endured,
Since the path to our loved ones is the nations.

31. The days have passed over this, driving them
Is the guide of havoc, and we will follow after them.

32. Man is originally pottery, no wonder
If he departs shattered by the hand of fate.

33. And for doom there is a trap of darkest night,
Felling the meteors of the resolute and the riffraff alike.

34. Say to him whom troops defeated from stinginess:
Did he escape undefeated by death's armies?

35. Your tomb was watered by satisfaction, you did not cease
To pluck beneficial fruits from your lasting soil,

36. Until you illuminate the land you dwell
With light upon light, and the plain and dunes grow radiant.

37. And your house continued chanting for people
When you were safe, and all the people were safe.