1. Should I hope that time will pardon you,
And feel safe in this world when you are gone?

2. If you are deceived by those I was generous with,
The nights change and give and forbid.

3. Healing and illness, poverty and wealth,
And after closeness, prophecy and separation.

4. Think, my friend - do you see any but the doomed,
Or one spared whose death is foreseen?

5. Why do we want life when in truth
A young man's life leads to death's abyss?

6. Each day takes a friend to the clutches of fate,
Going to the abode of ruin, never to return.

7. Prosperity separated them all completely,
And the home of a companion has become desolate.

8. We patch a tear hoping to cover its openings,
While another cannot be hidden or mended.

9. Fate has assaulted a gentle, well-mannered youth,
And tied him to the death-bed - a compliant victim.

10. The family of Nizar was shaken from their thrones
By the black hands of misfortunes - a violent shaking.

11. No descendant of the Sasanians survives
To bring news, nor any son of Caesar to listen.

12. No thronging multitude saved them,
Nor any lofty, elevated structure.

13. No bracelet fortified it, or jewel-studded crown
Raised above it, can defend against fate.

14. They were like leather stripped bare
Or debris disintegrated and shattered.

15. They had but a demolished building,
And a pillar corroded by the blows of events.

16. It severed my friends and companions from me,
And the condition of a man beyond fate's reach is interrupted.

17. They were the dear ones of time, now humiliated,
And the eyelids of the days of death are asleep.

18. Whenever they were called at a time of distress, they answered readily,
And if they witnessed battle, turbans and armor were donned.

19. Their fortresses lacked any courage,
And they had only light short spears for armor.

20. You see their white swords pledged
By the polishing stone's oath - but the pledge is long broken.

21. When war snatches opportunities, they have only
A youth escorted, but no warrior.

22. I kept company with him in the prime of youth,
And in grief I would seek his advice.

23. To the secret between us, he gave a dwelling
In my heart - ardent, loyal, long enduring.

24. How the men coveted him from me! But they covet
A setting star that will not rise again.

25. So I have lasting anguish over him, even if
I pretended composure for what was in my ribs and concealed it.

26. I never asked him, but I was steadfast so he might see
My adversaries rejoice that my breast is wider.

27. And they said, "We expect patience and dignity from you,
No tears will flow from your eyes in adversity."

28. So I said, "The afflictions of time are many,
And some of its adversities are more painful and grieving."

29. I remembered you, and my eyes had no strangeness in them,
Yet no more tears remained when I remembered you.

30. You never left my heart, even when you left my side,
For destiny can take what cannot be taken.

31. If my eyes overflow with tears in pretense of weeping,
There is a heart beneath them, anguished at your loss.

32. If you are absent from my eyes, still you are not absent
From heaving sorrows that yearn for you within my ribs.

33. Nor after the day my tears rained down upon you
Are there tears left in my eyes, or anguish in my heart.

34. How often have I turned my palms to one affectionate,
Only to meet the blame of the censured!

35. I recognized you when you were loyal, while they betrayed.
When you kept the pledge to me, while they broke it.

36. You were an excellent advisor, though counsel was limited,
An excellent supporter, though affairs were grave.

37. After your death, all singing is muted.
After your loss, all loyalty is barren.

38. For the friends of time, who were led away by your separation,
There is no compensation, for good or for harm.

39. I knew you would not complain of adversity,
Your cheek untouched by lamenting of woes.

40. It pained my heart that you were alone -
I whisper to you ardently, but you do not hear.

41. That after your refusal and dignity,
You are placed in the hands of men and carried aloft.

42. Why are you shunned when you are beloved?
Discarded when you are cherished?

43. You were solid as a rock at noon, defiant,
Yet to death's journey you were but designated firewood.

44. It was not from incapacity or weakness of strength,
But a matter that cannot be averted.

45. It brought me no joy that I cast you down,
Into a desolate wasteland where none gather.

46. I entrusted to the earth's interior a soul from you,
For what is entrusted to dust but the abandoned?

47. Your tranquil grave was watered by the soft night,
Woven pavilions of dusk - hump-backed structures.

48. As if the clouds were shedding their bounty upon it,
Litters bearing canopies - elongated and towering.

49. The soil remains heaped over it, while around it
The meadow stays verdantly green.

50. A essence of basil, spirits, and mercy,
And the grace of the Intercessor surrounds it.