1. In Damascus she dwelt, may God preserve it,
And dwelt in 'Aliyyin near the prophet Taha.

2. A pure-wombed princess whose soil God blessed,
So she perfumed all the scented ground that her rainwater refreshed.

3. Like a rose brought from gardens, so it offers its water even to thorns when it gives them drink.
O her beauty! Happy are the people of the land neighboring her!

4. They obtained bliss, riches, might, and glory through her.
She won the best from God without fatigue or people's toil,

5. We wished we had made her tribes our kin.
O comrade, this life does not last,

6. So work for the abode of permanence if you want it to reward you.
Repent and follow guidance, for most of the nights have passed

7. And what was to come of them has come and gone.
And plead to your Lord, for this life is but jewelry.

8. God has no mercy except on him who forgets it.
We court it in ignorance and seek it out,

9. Yet it does not answer even when we call it.
We cultivate it, and it cultivates us with its adversities,

10. Yet we do not repent or fear its tribulations.
O how perplexed is the wandering soul seeking its guidance!

11. How foolish is the ignorant inactive man exaggerating its worth!
What glory, what virtue is in it? What purpose? What end

12. Except to wither, as we have known them to do?
It is a vanishing illusion, whose luster charmed us when it shone,

13. An ignis fatuus if the ignorant man hastens towards it.
Nothing is uglier than it except its lover,

14. Whom its Creator forbids it yet he loves it.
Neglectful, he abandoned the Hereafter and forgot it,

15. And busied himself seeking the life of this world.
As if he had been confident he would live in the world forever,

16. So it sufficed him and he was content with it.
Say to the arrogant man whose origin is dust:

17. You are but dust, and to it you will return without glory.
As for the mother of the Emir whose carpets were of silk,

18. And camphor her bedding,
She gained nothing today from the house of delusion

19. Except this tomb, leveled like others.
If this was the fate of the best of all people,

20. What will the world do to its most wretched?
O heedless ones, does not death warn you

21. While you pay it no mind? Be mindful of God!
Recognize, from these remains, the slave from the master -

22. If they were not the same, bodies would be distinct.
They perished and loved, then returned as they were taken -

23. Without wealth or glory.
The turtle dove equals the glorious and the vile in worth,

24. O mother of the best father! It equaled her.
As for bliss, not all souls are equal in it;

25. The most pious of them are nearest to God.
Happy the soul whose essence is pure,

26. And God perfumed it in Paradise.
The soul of the mother of my master Abdelkader -

27. The generous, pious, just man who pleased her.
Noble woman who taught the elite of the nation

28. Generosity by which she pleased God.
My master, O paragon of the world and its guardian,

29. The best at opening his mouth in praise of the Merciful!
She who left your eyes flowing with tears

30. When she rested beneath you, if her eyelids overflowed.
She was not far removed from your sight for long,

31. But preferred being near the prophet Taha.
And she, who draws his mercy down today

32. For a nation whose most pious you are, my master!
The angels of the Creator served her,

33. Sparing us and you - God sufficed her.
How could the angels not serve a piece of one

34. Whose Master on the night of ascension was hers?
Teach, by your patience, God-consciousness to our souls,

35. For you have long taught heroes to bear calamities.
Stop, O heir of the highest traits, the wickedness of villains

36. And blind them from you, make their plot recoil upon them.
May God not decree any lifespan for us

37. Until we see you ruling despots, their king!