1. O friend, why do you not respond?
Have you become weary or is the distance too far?

2. My captive soul lies in the dust
Reaching out to you with her hands

3. Why don't you answer? Is there not a pact between us, my friend?
Or are you in a distant universe

4. Where no echo can be returned?
Or did I underestimate you, while obstacles and exertion lie between us?

5. Imagine your death has erected barriers and bolts between us
Can spirits not penetrate barriers if they wish?

6. O friend, my night has been long
And the darkness in it is endless

7. The night of sorrow has no glimmer of hope
No beginning or end

8. Won't a ray or echo appear
Or a sign in the night become visible?

9. My soul will find in it the answer
And draw hope from your affection

10. Don't justify me with a promise of meeting
For which I must prepare

11. And protect my faith, which doubt and denial have ruined
Why don't you answer and say "I hear you,

12. So I will sing again and say
My brother is not lost, but my companion wherever I go

13. And the dawn of hope reveals to me
Its light, which is promise and covenant"

14. O friend, O son of my father and mother
What is my passion today and fervor?

15. A soul conversing with its other half
While the other half turns away and does not respond

16. And the crown of the edifice of death is between them
An impenetrable wall

17. Can souls fall silent when they move apart and forget those they love?
Or do they wither, having no more accord or hope or eternity?

18. My soul sails an ocean of sorrow
With ebbs and flows

19. My heart pushes it toward certain doom
While it drifts heedlessly, its guide leading it to despair

20. It listens to the crashing waves
Pounding its vessel mercilessly

21. Its sail of hope lies torn
While the winds race over it

22. And reason hurls it toward the shoals of forgetfulness, though it does not wish it
It refuses anything but memories, and in memories it finds pain and lethargy

23. Alas, memories are poison and honey in their cups
O friend, O son of my father and mother

24. Where were you and where are you headed?
Is this your fate, to the grave

25. With no protest from you?
Is this the end, O what an outcome

26. That has no parallel among creations?
A body the earth can barely contain

27. Laid out on a bier
Where are the ambitions, feelings,

28. Yearnings and throngs?
And the mind, creator of wonders—

29. Can it be confined to a grave?
And the daughters of your heart, do they

30. Have a cradle and bed beneath the soil?
Never! The grave holds little

31. That can be counted
The earth covers your essence

32. But the soul cannot be covered by a tomb
Your grave contains what can be contained

33. While your soul cannot be contained
You returned the earth's dust naked

34. Shedding a garment that cannot be found
You broke your fetters victoriously

35. After today, you are no slave
You ascended toward the horizons of light

36. Where dawn emerges
Farewell, my brother, for I will come

37. Where you are headed
You accompanied me, then outpaced me

38. For outpacing is most difficult
Life is not hopes, wealth,

39. Pleasures and comfort
Life is tortured souls, then

40. Bodies that decay
They do not return our echoes

41. Or respond to greetings