1. O master of all people, we loved him
And O shoulder above the stars, we followed him

2. And we walked behind him, heeding his call
Not asking about the extent of our journey

3. He was obeyed among us the day we grieved him
And never in the days did we disobey him

4. O the most beautifully flowing of what we have narrated of him
And O the most beautiful verses of what we have composed for him

5. Like love you came, and life smiled at us
And our hopes were but a fraction of his world

6. Like a dream you came, kindling in our hearts
Passion, with which we repeat a name we had lost

7. And we lived you in love, and forgot that all
Loves are transient, though their memory endures

8. And we lived you in a dream, and forgot our wailing
At dawn when all dreams we had seen vanished

9. You came beautiful and charming, we loved him
So his beauty increased through you, until we worshipped him

10. And you grew, bestowing on us the meaning of humility
You found, and taught us the essence of competition

11. Like love when it brings to life hearts grown cold
With the malady of grey hair, after a life we spent

12. And succeeds in enticing glory we forgot
We counted, before you, how many we hoped for

13. So we attribute success in negligence to others
And the state of every sweet era we possessed is forgotten

14. We forgot you distractedly, and forgot that every
Love, if one day neglected, is lost

15. So you left a king, and subdued your enemy
Leaving behind in us a pain we never knew

16. Much of you has passed, O life - so how much is left
That might return, that we may meet it?

17. And if God extends you, how will your return be
When you came twice, both times we wronged him

18. Can tears equal days gone in the eye's view
That love may forgive, if only we never knew it

19. I think not life sends her days planning
To erase the morrow and make us forget it

20. Walk slowly for a little, that we may find
Solace in the lingering scent of a passion we asked not

21. Dear to us is every yesterday we spent
And every tomorrow a yesterday when we grasp it

22. But yesterday was generous with the love we coveted
Would that tomorrow make amends to yesterday and revive it

23. Merciful to us, O Lord, none but us
Would fill our cup with bitterness we drank

24. You granted us a cup for good, so do not forever
Fill it with wrong if we pledged it