1. You cling to life and grow rigid,
Yet life after its span will cease.

2. A soul I resist though knowing
Death lurks within me and sways.

3. Pain grips me that I beguile
With what the doctor prescribes, so it calms and dies.

4. I'm glad I escaped harm
Yet woe that if I escape I'm made immortal,

5. As though I lost my fate's course
The path to oblivion paved smooth.

6. Alas! Not deceiving is the eye of destiny,
The eye of destiny wakes while yours slumbers.

7. I am you after death, neither enslaved
Nor free, so it's paltry, nor enslaved.

8. I saw life's potter tread it
Underfoot, debase and patch it.

9. Was Saad, as I knew, of the world
That each dies? Nay! Saad is peerless.

10. Storms of his eulogy came from Egypt
Yet eastern, rebellious.

11. I asked his day, and lo!
A day as dark as death's silence.

12. I fathomed the stars the night of his eulogy
And destiny's darkness the day he was buried.

13. Egypt's sons were distraught at their leader's loss.
God is greatest! What greater unpredictability!

14. O Saad, Nile's son, its water whimpered.
Bereft of sons! Can one like Saad be born?

15. Egypt, you who lost him, your throbbing heart,
And East, your ribs flare up,

16. As if a liver ripped by sadness,
As if a hand that upheld it let go.

17. Egypt, you worshipped him, kindler of your glory,
For valor has always been worshipped.

18. Lord of valor, it cast its servant
Into dangers to destroy and scatter.

19. He faces dangers, their tide overflowed,
Lo! A boulder standing there solid.

20. Lo! Surging billows crashing,
Repelled, they swerve and he stands fast.

21. Lo! Above domes all wreathed
By the honored shrine, extolled, exalted.

22. Lo! Below the Noble Canopy, the Kaaba
Where foreheads prostrate in worship.

23. Lo! The eye of immortality where his secret lies,
Noble faces humbly bow down in worship.

24. O Saad, such is your stature, and valor
Bows before you, you alone supreme!

25. God took him at seven and sixty
While death's decree hastens on.

26. He set up battles' nets but they were severed,
And his covenant cast arrows straight and true.

27. No less in exile than in Egypt
Where he fired his arrows direct.

28. He saw your valor withstand all,
As an impregnable coat of mail.

29. So he shot his bonds and broke his bow,
Crept frightened to your deathbed lying in wait.

30. He gave you to drink from his cup, and you knew it
And drank it down, though I hesitated.

31. Yes, you finished while that light
Was overflowing radiance never extinguished.

32. You guided the East in its darkness.
The life in it raged and surged.

33. With its weapons it struck your enemies,
And Egypt turned to those who rebel.

34. The guiding lantern, dust covers it.
When will it return? Where will the lantern rise?

35. Oh what sadness that the lands lament
The President's betrayal by death unseating him!

36. Their groans are Egypt's groans, split
Our hearts and livers by their horror.

37. Since its pillars shook, my friend,
Your call rejoiced it and brought joy.

38. I consoled it in its tragedy and joined it.
My solace, a gift not to be denied.

39. Noble one, with it you ended life, and it
Caps your thousands of great deeds.

40. I eulogized him, so he stayed up grieving
One eye shedding tears, one eye frozen.

41. This is Egypt's soil which you loved.
Sleep peacefully, O Saad, blessed abode!

42. Hearts ransom you that wish they were
The sand you pillow or shed.

43. That wish the flowers that crowned you
Were eyes that keep night vigil.

44. The soul and sweet basil are the best regards.
You need no more water to drink.

45. You weren't absent from any land,
Nor did the pain of your memory cease renewing.