1. The banner of death waves over the heads of mankind
Unfurled by the battalions of destruction

2. All people drink from it in times of peace
And rest in its shade during strife

3. Whoever is hasty dies and is forgotten, and whoever is
Patient lives under the fluttering tent

4. The goal of man is but to return as a patient
And the fate of the healer is to tend to patients

5. With two cups of life and death
Have people drunk since the epoch of the ancients

6. The dream of this life - so for him who delays
It splits or mends according to sleep

7. And the apex of fates, however long the bliss
Is bound for decline or misery in the end

8. Seven fat years passed in Joseph's calculation
Followed by seven lean in succession

9. The two friends ended equal, one led to prosperity
The other banished to estrangement

10. The earth and wilderness as his grave
While the other was destined for the place of return

11. As bodies travel through the earth to their demise
Souls travel through bodies toward departure

12. What era lies buried beneath the rubble of Baalbek
Under that soil and those columns?

13. Stop at its majestic ruins and look -
Can you see any kingdoms or lands?

14. Kings became legend and their ilk, stories
What then of the common folk?

15. They built edifices for ruin, and time passed them by
An age of righteousness and another of demons

16. At Baalbek I despaired, and met Father Joseph
Heading to the monastery amid the monks

17. When a king dwells and sleeps alongside decay
Between the eyes of ruin and pitch darkness

18. Make his dwelling like the hunters’ haunts
And his tomb like that of peers

19. Stop at the grave of the martyr and neighbor, and ask
O captive of death, have you a redeemer?

20. When an arrow has struck your beloved
It wounds all hearts and minds

21. Fate destroyed you and razed the edifice of purity
Bastion of chivalry and archers

22. What living soul after you, when you assumed command
Your nobility brought tears to the young

23. Five after you there were, who filled Damascus
With the envy of foes and zealots

24. All of them, preservers of loyalty, faithful in their word
Guardians of the covenant, and true in affection

25. This one's father and grandfather, when appointed to rule
Were the most righteous fathers and forefathers

26. They took probity and fidelity, both traits
From a masterly, generous father

27. O House of Matar, if I came with revelation
I could not increase you in wisdom and guidance

28. You have souls that withstand the blows of events
As gales withstand peaks

29. So take solace in this tragedy, and be
To the faithful, a saving cry

30. Life fluctuates, and death is firm
Existence strays, while demise guides

31. The throbbing heart in the moment of loss
Calls for the heart's peace

32. And when it is renewed, aged, and exhausted
Its time comes with no warning