1. The river opened its mouth wide for the travelers
And the water rose high, the shores disappeared

2. And death appeared sailing like the smoothness of a cheek, and the captain found no solution
The ship collapsed under mountains

3. With thick ropes of enormous waves
Mountains over the ship - water harder than granite

4. Oil that melts intestines, and water
That quenches even the unthirsty

5. Death entered, stealing steps like a thief
Between the dancing of corpses and the playing of lute

6. It asked the travelers: How did their songs
Turn into moans that pound the ears of time?

7. And their melodies into the gurgling
Of the throats of women and children?

8. My soul yearns for an innocent child
Oblivious to the striking of events

9. Who died in his mother's lap! Oh mother
Who met her death at the moment of her son's death!

10. My soul yearns for a young man who the wave
Betrayed though he struggled with his arms!

11. And a maiden wed too early to the Nile
Her wedding passed without celebration!

12. Many attained a new life
Only to have it ended by sorrows!

13. The screams of the drowning, their echoes pound his ears
Everywhere, without cease

14. Oh Nile, how many generations have you sustained
And given life to mortal bodies

15. Why then did you bring miserable death
And spread destruction amongst the people?

16. Do you contain grape cider, O Nile,
Or the venom of snakes and cobras?

17. You took from us, O Nile, what neither
Lionesses nor wolves could take

18. I wonder, did you disdain to give too much grace?
The generous are not grudging

19. Or did you remember what you once had
With the beautiful singing maidens of the past?

20. You used to take one child each year
Why did you take a whole village in moments?

21. Describe to us the war: how its havoc spun
Between the army of children and the flood?

22. How a child struggled against death
With hands stained crimson by henna?

23. On many an arm you carved scars that no
Two hands could erase

24. Tell the people, O Nile, of the human urge
To cling to life

25. Describe to us: how does water extinguish the light of the eye
After the glimmer and glow?

26. How was the pain of death more bitter
Than a sharp sword or piercing fang?

27. Describe to us: how you squeezed out their final breaths
And sealed their lips shut?

28. Oh enemy of fires, when you rose in rage
How did you become a torch of flames?

29. How many hearts did you leave burning
In hell, you who are the spring of heavens?

30. The people came to relax awhile
And relax they did, but for all time

31. They planned a trip; and it was from this
World to the distant other world

32. They did not know, as they adorned themselves,
That they dressed themselves in shrouds

33. Death took what the wave adorned itself with, and what it
Dyed in colors

34. It was as if the water flowed beautifully
Yellow, from the hair of maidens

35. And it was as if the water flowed over the drowned
As tears from the eyes of mourners

36. Oh Lord, I do not question fate; though doubt
Creeps in, I find solace in faith

37. If it is said: the elders sinned, so what
Wrong did a suckling babe commit?

38. Thoughts that each time I dwell on
Leave my mind scattered and distraught

39. Oh you who fled the toil of earth, rest in the Garden of Bliss
Surely in Al-Kawthar is safety for those who found no safety in the Nile

40. You martyrs of peace, and oh Lord
A martyr is one who dies in the cause!