1. However long time may flow, a term is coming
That will clear your hands of the faithful friend.

2. Summoning to the truth, he donned humility
And wore the garments of guidance and chastity.

3. Youth has gone, with nothing to grieve for;
Only the finest of men feel its agony.

4. He was great, like the cedars, in his qualities,
Though spirits of solace are few in supply.

5. Sorrows were light for him, however hard,
In the events of fate, which nothing can defy.

6. Of all the lovely things you have lost,
Only the love of good men can replace and satisfy.

7. O world! Are you a sleeper's dream,
A night of revelry, a feast laid out?

8. Your luxuries are gardens, but brushed
By the blight of misery on their edges.

9. I kept an unwavering nature with you
Until I grasped your fickle, shifting quality.

10. The sacrificial lamb, so gentle, passed away,
Like the one who sacrificed him, in purity.

11. He who wore the shroud perfumed and pure
Spent the night slaughtering his own heart for his agonies -

12. Did he think they were guests to entertain?
Sorrows descended on his gentle dawn

13. And turned in the most generous of homes.
They clung to the most forgiving of chests

14. And were soothed by the patient concealer of pain.
Nothing was harder than their cause -

15. An illness clinging to the most merciful of hearts.
A heart whose care, if hearts could intertwine,

16. Would leave none hardened in the souls.
So destiny cast him with mortality;

17. He who is tried by His decree finds healing.
You set upon the orbiting sky, which did not turn,

18. And the clouds, so you roamed the wastes.
The fire of genius blazed, leaving naught

19. But ashes, and pages for the studious.
They carried on their shoulders the light of glory

20. That shames the envious shoulders of others.
They shouldered the precious, orphaned bier -

21. Far fewer litters are borne with honour.
The swaying poles had touched such nobility,

22. Such cherishing sides and encircling arms.
When the glory of death and the glory of genius are one,

23. How excellent they are when paired together!
O youths, reveling in your prime -

24. Will you enjoy such circling and rituals?
If he had lived, their leader and lord,

25. The banner would be folded for resolute, halting feet.
How often when his love poured friendship

26. It was war to the people of rule and command!
The people have no day until they rise again

27. With news of their past and terrified thoughts.
Do not let any domes that you see please you -

28. They built them over their dead with side chambers.
They attacked the clear truth with falsehood

29. And the straight path with prodigality.
They build God's house however they wish -

30. Adorned alcoves or a simple roof.
They embellish their graves like their palaces

31. While the earth laughs, and the empty dirt mocks.
The doe of the valley grieved for just one, my friend,

32. And swallowed the agony of the clear brook.
She lost a beauty like springtime,

33. Which adorned the gardens and skilled cultivation.
If he lacked the ancestry of approval, then perhaps -

34. Lineages often flow to the mean and lowly.
Or he was less of a father than Abu al-Rida,

35. For he restored the eloquence of slaves.
The nobility of the Othmanis was the making of their souls -

36. Who can compare them to the nobility of others?
Say to one who points to his father and grandfather -

37. Do you know the ancestry of the two moons?
If your builder Imran had not lived,

38. You would not be pointed to among the noble.
The Judge of Judges - a case befell him

39. With no appeal against death's decree.
The Ordainer of Rules is subject

40. To the rule of mortality, for which nothing suffices.
The boon companion of kings beneath their domes

41. Is entertained at night by howling wolves.
In a home where prey once circled,

42. The millstone turns, and feet tread upon the threshing floor.
The beauty of faces and their glory is gone -

43. What was worshipped behind the curtains.
Of every smooth charmer of bliss,

44. His silks turned to tatters and rags.
You see the skulls equalized in dust

45. After intellects, like oyster shells.
You see the slaying eyes, robbed

46. Of their lids and lashes in the sword's swipe.
You watch the laughing mouths - how often

47. They seduced with the sweetness of smiles and calls!
The ages charge past generations like does

48. Whose blood is owed to the prey of its claws.
Fate runs its course through them, and time runs

49. From their hands - O three fast allies!
It casts the innocent with snares, and at times

50. With ropes from its threads, enough to suffice.
It wove three turbans and innovated

51. Shrouds for the dead from wedding clothes.
O father of al-Husayn, greetings to your grave

52. From a soul, a basil plant, and sweet blossoms!
Peace upon a family, companions in innocence,

53. Longing for those bygone days.
Have I anything but immortal verse

54. To present before you as a gift?
Nothing was nobler than this gift for you -

55. Do you see me sending the noblest favours?
This is basil, but its breezes

56. Are from the bloom of your meadow.
This is a pearl, but the cradle of its orphanhood

57. Was yesterday the surge of your sea.
Days I would rush in your dust as a youth,

58. Taking the path to excellence on the dust of threshing.
I learned the goals - how they are attained

59. In the racecourse of virtue or the field of poetry.
O rider of the hump, release its reins -

60. The way is not hidden from the guide.
The people have bent to what is not to be ridden

61. To truth, neither hurried nor indifferent.
Not to steeds or camels, but created

62. Without hooves, gentle of step.
It carries the riders to the station of guidance

63. And leads to the abode of truth and equity.
It reached the Lord of Cities and ended

64. Where you ended with the Lord of the Trench.
Sleep a full sleep - morning is heedless

65. Of what alarms you, and evening makes you forget.
On a bed whose merits suffice you -

66. Your side does not turn from it in dislike.
Laugh at the decrees, undefeated -

67. Today you are not one of their targets.
Death, which you feared, you conquered,

68. So leave it be, for that suffices.
Tell me, does theprecedence of affection fight

69. Or heal when the young man falls?
In the earth, your parents are a treasure,

70. Affection and longing - enough company.
With it is your youth, and the gentle ones wept -

71. I wept for them with a flooding tear.
Go like the lamp of the sky - both of you

72. The day leans upon, and neither hovers.
The sun is succeeded by stars, and you by

73. Traces, news, and descriptions.
He conquered life, a youth who fills its place