1. The cord of hope is knotted with the ropes of despair,
And safety from the accidents of days is lost.

2. Man is a prey between the claws of calamity,
His essence targeted by the arrows of death.

3. Be not astonished, for there is no wonder in death,
Since by it man is limited.

4. What is gained from the days is taken back,
What is borrowed from lifetimes is returned.

5. Death has claws, when it is triumphant
You see every pillar though propped up overturned.

6. Neither the fierce lion with his strength,
Nor the master with his cunning escaped its evil.

7. He who thought some creatures everlasting was wrong,
Eternity is for the heavenly world on high.

8. Did they not say the meteors immortal are,
Where then is the blessed meteor of the faith?

9. He who was a signpost of knowledge among mankind,
Is guided by it if the landmarks are effaced.

10. He whose excellence jealous rivals denigrated,
And from whose hands credentials were detached;

11. By his merit the horizons of the days shine bright,
As if for the cheeks of time he attends its rouge.

12. Eloquent of speech without babbled utterance,
No hesitation or doubt within his view.

13. Grant violates not his promised deadline,
Nor purposefully delays the appointed time.

14. If a gift is sought to give freely forth,
Verily for free giving and merit he is sought.

15. His is the talent that managed the skills of war,
In the field of danger, shooting and elevation.

16. Deaf, mute, split of tongue, if
You engage him in talk, songs are heard.

17. If he wished to blacken the whitening of the full moons,
By his creation the blackening of people is for the white.

18. If he writ a line, contrary to analogy,
The sun rising is seen while night remains.

19. The lyrics whose words were enjoyed by the hearer,
Sweet poems from him and songs.

20. Smooth of phrase not trite in meaning,
Nor rough of wording arbitrarily curtailed.

21. O occupier of rank, pardoned by envier,
For the blessed are envied for their bounty.

22. None like you shone for excellence in Syria
When its splendor from its Lord withdrew.

23. To you knowledge was attributed pedigree,
And today in you knowledge and nobility abide.

24. How many a sermon’s place has been its guide,
And time mimics it often in its decrees;

25. And a word none can replace preserving its niche,
Purer than water, yet it is solid ice.

26. And a cudgel, for the inquiry’s contention convened,
As if for battle’s fleshing it was amassed.

27. It bared the swords’ blade on an day whose renown sees witness,
Gashing in its lair each false reasoner;

28. With a blade whose stroke no armor returns,
Even if David fortified the knitted coat of mail.

29. Till when the false reasoners retreated before it,
And failed before its claim credentials’ aid,

30. They cast their schemes to a hero,
Valiant and peerless, to him schemes are cast.

31. O misser of my found while found you miss,
My care while had and care itself is missed!

32. And reckoner of merit between us, lineage,
While in fathers’ lineage estrangement resides.

33. It would assuage grief to forget one like you
If your peer in both lands could be found.

34. In you an event has unstitched my garment of patience
To replace robes of sorrow with renewal.

35. Despite myself, one of hope calls upon you
So continuous favour is undiminished;

36. And your fresh quarter is seen though in it no meadow
Fertile, nor shade from you outstretched.

37. I weep when glories of your honours leave me,
My thoughts seek patience while it is outcast.

38. And I console myself your sons will succeed them,
Be they young lions or children of the chase.

39. So every rhyme will elegy you from me,
By it your memory amongst people perpetuated.

40. I make people hear descriptions you were known by,
As if amongst the living you are counted.

41. For not but the rain makes the dust its dweller,
While we know the rain within it is blamed.

42. To endure, its shade stretched in its courtyard,
Its lotuses and buds boxed and stacked.