1. My basil's aroma has faded
And my joy's abode narrowed

2. Time afflicted me through my son
So my delight died

3. Like a brave man buckles when
Misfortune shakes and bends him

4. He was a lamp for a people whose
Lamps were extinguished, put out

5. So morning that was shining
Was extinguished by fate and passed

6. The stars of glory were Qais
And the scent of Nizar's idols

7. They wept with me when they outpoured
The earth with tears, rather they gushed

8. And my eyes whenever they streamed
Would stir raging passions and burn

9. Refusing but obstinately weeping
So their tears were turbulent

10. And they said how long will you grieve
And not knock on patience's door?

11. I said He Who relieves sorrows
Is loss, and weeping brings relief

12. My breast which had been eased
By his talk, after him was pained

13. So to the bereaved, patience's face
Is bitter, and to me it's harsh

14. A slaughtered one whose blood poured
Without a sacrificial animal cut for him

15. I saw his blood and my eyes' blood
How they blended and merged

16. And did not drip separately but
Poured while doubling and pairing

17. If not for his death, from the blood
Tumult would have flowed between us

18. I say though my innermost being is severed
Would that for his sake my inner self was sacrificed

19. Be gentle, oh terminator, with him
Is the ordained decree without fault?

20. So where is his luminous forehead in you
And where is his languorous eyelid?

21. And where is the mouth adorned
By God's creation and the crevice?

22. And where is the thick of his saying
And where are his arguments and proofs?

23. The son of forty years - his decades
Of arguments did not cease

24. So he was total generosity
While mankind are stingy

25. His students would sleep at dawn
As he dictated to the writers

26. He would be glad when I opened for him
And be sad when I bolted the door

27. And he would memorize when his board was filled
While the writing coalesced

28. Every singer wept blood for him
Until the inkpads were smeared

29. The veins of all mankind
stretch to the earth's vein

30. The people of this world are as though
For lack of care they are indifferent

31. And is it anything but the house of woe
When they enter it, they exit

32. Contemplate how it eats them
While they are offspring it birthed

33. We loved it even had it been
Crooked in its creation

34. It shows us affection while toward us
Sliding into detriments

35. And we are at its ends
So this is havoc and that devastation

36. My son escaped while it destroys me
Passionately, for passion ravages

37. O Abdel Ghani, I am passionate
In remembering you and fervent

38. And soon I will see you tomorrow
So the heart's eye stirs and flickers

39. Perhaps God will gather us
In blessing where we will delight