1. Let not health and comfort deceive you,
For what does not last with you is borrowed.

2. The youth is tempted by the love of life and the adornment of
The world, and forgets that to which he will return.

3. And when insights are blind to the paths of guidance,
What good are eyesights?

4. Do not be fooled by fate, even if it meets you
In a situation that pleases you, for it is fickle.

5. Look to those before you and learn a lesson,
For you will soon become what they have become.

6. So everything given you in this world will disappear,
Even if the whole world were folded up for you.

7. The generous grieve, and no tribe wails
For the one they have lost among them.

8. O Ibn Yusuf, God watches over your grave
Where abundant rain flows.

9. Until the sides of your grave are a verdant meadow
Surrounded by light.

10. I cry for you though my tears poured forth
Would make rivers marvel at their extent.

11. You were our right hand, and what can the right hand do
When the right hand goes paralyzed?

12. You were our aid against the times, but when
The aid ran dry, the rains were scarce.

13. O full moon, the grave was too narrow for you,
And the lands too cramped for your gallantry.

14. I take pride that the dust should cramp you
And visitors turn away from your tomb.

15. You were a treasure to kings, a pillar
Of counsel your planning and spending.

16. And many the cavalry, thanks to your planning,
Have charged on the foes like a surging sea.

17. Strange that the full moon should get accustomed
To darkness when it reaches its peak!

18. He was generous, despite the paucity and plethora of his wealth,
The same in lean times and in plenty.

19. Clear and flawless his honor,
Safe from flaws, untouched by shame.

20. From an Arab house he came,
Begotten of Arabs freeborn.

21. He was not fed by a nursemaid's milk,
Nor were his manners spoiled by the loose-living.

22. If the meek showed fear of violence,
In him were dignity and composure.

23. O full moon, if after you saw our state,
It would pain you what fate has wrought.

24. Our enemies rejoiced and an envier has had
His way with us, while helpers grew few.

25. We used to be wary, and our friends were afraid
For us, while our enemies sat snug.

26. No life can be pleasant after you,
Nor dwelling, despite life's pleasures and roaming.

27. Far from me that my eyelids be delighted
By others after losing you, or my heart know

28. Any rest.
Or that I unburden complaints to anyone but you

29. And secrets are kept from any but you.
Fate played us false when it parted us.

30. Time with its people is ever treacherous.
If Death's eyes could weep for one who perishes

31. They would weep for children left by you while still small.
Not content with your burial in the grave

32. Have we been summoned from Damascus' abode.
Time was unfair in parting us.