1. Alas! That precious blood shed for Allah’s cause,
And for glory what examples of moral height remain,

2. Some deaths are means to give life to nations,
And build a future for unborn generations.

3. My eyes pour forth their tears on blood so pure,
Distilled from youth and all its hopes eterne,

4. Events have led from exiled shades of palms
To a fell deed of Time’s most baneful qualms.

5. It flowed incarnadined yet rendered white
By angels’ washing in ethereal light,

6. Its martyr sought the iron bars for shroud
That sighing hearts and ruins thus encloud.

7. Peace unto him, while living and deceased,
Both in this vacant age and world increased

8. My friends in the West's protecting arms repose
May zephyrs of a noble grief compose,

9. Of the soft, pliant beauties once possessed
The cheeks now journey to a foreign rest.

10. The newscaster brought us the mournful tale,
A father bent with anguish, mother frail

11. The West sets out toward the East in stride
His destrier o’er land and sea doth glide

12. Grief to the soul speaks softly, not outspoken,
Nor does heartache words of ease bespoken

13. The sky of zeal o’er both the shores doth hover,
Like moons eclipsed, cubs of lions covered.

14. Does the wind know what it hath sailed amain?
Except a bier of iron and of chains.

15. Of bold youths, lions’ cubs, fewer remain
At dawn to ride the steed of dangers plain,

16. Misfortunes bent them not in valley clefts,
But the last twist of fate with ruin left.

17. They embraced amidst the fumes as though inclined,
Like two afflicted souls in gloom entwined.

18. Glory to Him who spills iron’s ire, its might,
Upon one tender, verdant, from life’s height,

19. And who takes the noble at the break of morn,
When death lifts up its hood of souls forlorn,

20. And who makes journeys but a fancy vain
To a voyage no locks or bars restrain.

21. Then bear not their remains from Egypt’s land,
Let an orphan by a guardian angle stand,

22. Lying in the tomb between Christ and Kafur,
For nations to dispute the righteous cure.

23. Does not the plea of kith, kindred impel thee?
And clamor of dear friends now gone compel thee?

24. If they missed in death Egypt’s embrace,
Yet they won in her soil the gift of grace;

25. No resurrection preoccupied their hearts,
When spirit’s pledge from two prisons departs.

26. From West you brought the suns to Eastern banks,
That met their brilliance with aspects gloomy-dank.

27. Cut off before their prime without attaining
Their full potential, their clear dawn waning,

28. They are borne around like scrolls wherein none read,
And the prayer of the living to the dead.

29. Coffins on shoulders seen with graces sent,
Like the ark of Moses and the ascent,

30. Wrapped in gowns of sundown hues, crescent shaped,
From the Nile’s banner in effigy draped.

31. The awe of death and knowledge shaded them,
So they passed by with reverence on each limb,

32. Leaving an abode of lies and lustful din,
For Truth’s neighborhood of lawful discipline.

33. O Alexandria enthroned above the tide!
With worshippers thy crescent barge doth glide

34. Sailing midst the city’s smiles at breaking light,
And this procession grieving into night.

35. None before or since the days of Ishmael,
Reached its precedence or tales to tell.

36. This event in the mind never came to be,
Those deaths were not meant in our memory.

37. Yet every soul is sister to death and daughter,
Though trailing modernity’s pomp and water.

38. Nor is it odd that one joined to youth should die,
But odd that life should stretch for those nearby.

39. For every youth or agedness is held in pledge
By the accidents of fate that come unpledged.

40. Grayness is no steed of high renown to mount,
Nay, ride the steed of fate, though less account.

41. For youth ripens courage and bounty in man,
While age only ripens greed and the miserly hand.

42. O noble Nile youth! Be comforted,
And speak not of fate, but in general instead.

43. For this is the truth that no twisting denies,
No subtle beguiling can veil from wise eyes.

44. To you falls the banner of knowledge, so strive,
For under it lies the glory of lives.

45. If standards betray leaving gaps to fill,
Replace it with another against life's ills.

46. No mettle have lads with no learning in hover,
Who piecemeal collect things in frantic fervor.

47. On departure, if they with words have equipped,
‘Tis sentences loosely conveyed, scattered, ripped.

48. When the youth panic during tumults unplanned,
Who can master issues or disputes withstand?

49. Had there not been souls who redeemed at cost,
E’en the minds of apostles would have been lost.

50. Sing then of those martyrs amidst you, famed,
Like days of heroes and epics proclaimed.

51. Are you not the folk who aloofness obtained,
From seven blows through the eternal Unnamed?

52. You harkened back to Pharaohs of yester age,
Or an uncle forgotten in pulverized sage.