1. Between my falling tears and Ali's shrine,
Lies the covenant in Baqee's confine.

2. The tears are solace for distressed soul,
And comfort for the anguished and dole.

3. We pass away, while others will remain,
Joining the gone in their fair domain.

4. So much earthly dust with blood imbued,
Upon the days poured out and strewed.

5. Like a grave unfilled with bone stark white,
And remnants of what once saw life's light.

6. Two meadows of glory that honour drew,
Now shelter but stars when day is through.

7. Their talk is musk's fragrance in the throngs,
And perfume 'mid gathering's press and songs.

8. Say to Death: "You've let down with tears drawn,
The Patience' veil, though with care worn."

9. Events descend on the days' flow and tide,
As though they'd never come and subside.

10. With Abul Fadl's leaving, grief laden,
I bear what I'd never borne unbidden.

11. Till I'm dazed - and who tastes the loss of most dear,
Will find himself in a daze most drear!

12. So I blame Fate in Fate's judgment hall,
For the decree made in Fate's call.

13. I yearn for that youth and time ahead,
And for friends when friendship has sped.

14. I yearn for features like the full moon gleaming,
'Twixt the splendor of youth and brooklets streaming.

15. And the modesty of a face inclined,
To Jesus' way and message kind.

16. O you who 'neath the palm trees rest,
Free of sorrow and woes suppressed!

17. You robed in Minister's robes stately,
Lie now garbed differently, sensibly.

18. And you who on sand as your deathbed lie,
After life's长quest built up high.

19. My thoughts turn to the faded youth,
In his bloom pictured, in truth.

20. And I pause torn between the real and myth,
Seeing time hastily by me flit.

21. Days rushed ahead - would they had not sped!
Destined for us at the pool to be led.

22. They vanished like dreams, with no cryptic key,
While dreams harbor some mystery.

23. Our youth's shade generous by our side,
Spreads, not with the years of eventide.

24. We were neighbors in campus lodgings placed,
Each at his window the other faced.

25. Studying there with scholars mature,
And students excelling seeking their cure.

26. Days sacrificing at knowledge fane
As never sacrificed before or again.

27. While youth remains ignored - how so,
When you from youth's pursuits didn't go?

28. Had you but known life's total span,
You'd have done what no other man.

29. None knows what the days hide away,
Except Allah planning our way.

30. We wander through straits of the unknown and familiar,
Till we change while the covenant stays as it were.

31. Those days of youth so generous, so kind!
Whose shade enriched those left behind.

32. Who e'er missed youth's shade, unfurled,
Has lived in life bare and world.

33. O you who left and your bounty remained,
Bearing the hopes you self-contained!

34. The throngs of youth walked canopy topped,
Weeping for the canopy lopped.

35. So see if your bier flowed with tears' measure,
When farewell bade youth's treasure.

36. God - and a nation frail, weak.
While you had a father bent, bleak.

37. He gives up the homesteads rich;
But to whom returns their cache?

38. Not rich is he who is without woe
And worry is spared to know.

39. A noble lady 'mid tribes resting,
Her worries unsettling, distressing.

40. The sheltered plunge in her dwell,
While the audacious in her cell.

41. Breaking the comfortable's wings in injustice,
Wounding the pampered's spirit in prejudice.

42. As if your house is with anguish rife,
Of Mutamm and Murammal in life. [1]

43. Hussein's house in Karbala,
Where worries can't be put far.

44. You doffed youth to aid the troubled,
And sacrificed it with woes redoubled.

45. The sword, a kinder killer
Than the illness worse and fuller.

46. So go as Hussein went to better place,
To God's bounty and beneficent grace.

47. For you both are youth's adornment,
In gardens of God's contentment.

48. [1] Names signifying suffering and anguish