1. Toulouse, the torch of knowledge sheds its tears on you
While a wretch weeps, and a people weak of purpose lost its ally

2. Not every day has an ally for the weak
And farmers lament, “You were their beacon”

3. You were a lamp they extinguished, though it gave light
They suffer injustice and darkness in their huts

4. And cannot voice their pain, which would have been easy
You would go around like Jesus, with affection and pleasure

5. Upon them, and enter their homes and visit
And religion grieves you, for you are its core

6. While the resentful servants get only the rind
Can one deny the Bible whose books

7. Are gospels, warning and giving good news?
And a thousand dear ones weep for you in regret

8. The morning after the royal bed was walked
The towns took up your elegy as though

9. Your peace to them were a disturbing clamor
It was said the Sheikh roamed the land distraught

10. It was said that in the convent he was held captive
It was said that he passed and his doctor was of no use

11. For medicine is helpless before the grip of destiny
When you became the neighbor of Maʿarrī in the soil

12. And the neighbor of Ridwa in the dust forever
The community of the eternal came to both of you

13. And each peer now is precious for his peer's worth
Skulls beneath the soil, their scent made fragrant

14. By the musk and perfume the maidens plucked for them
The loins of Eve boast of them, and Earth’s loins

15. Contained them, being proud
Say, O eternal sage, speak of decay

16. For you know well all matters, being so wise
You encompassed the dead of old and recently

17. In a way unmatched by Questioner or Denier
The fold that folds the heavens tomorrow

18. And unfurls them after folding them, for He is Able
Our eras have vied with death long

19. Be the time long or short in decay
It was as though no church was too narrow for me yesterday

20. No convent there gave me shelter
I see comfort between the large stones and pebbles

21. And every mattress has given rest and become worn out
With the light of death we saw every truth

22. And we both had been blind in life
My confession is to you, not to clergy or priest

23. My intimacy after God is with Him forgiving
Your asceticism no mystic on earth denied

24. Nor any supreme being in the heavens belittled
A statement whose breath bears the scent of revelation

25. And knowledge abundant as the prophets’ knowledge
I walked the path of luxury which delighted me

26. With children, wealth, and life fleeting
In the shade of towering palaces I warded off winter’s cold

27. And my summer equipment was a garden and brooks
I enjoyed worldly pleasures eighty eventful years

28. And my days were made lush by riches and wellbeing
A renown brilliant as sunlight in every country

29. And no share like that of the sun as it travels
Yet concern for me was only from undefiled virgins

30. And many a frail one who sought refuge that I might protect
I wanted intimacy with God, my life now done

31. His intimacy life long is my equal
Childhood, pleasure, kith and kin and place,

32. Every pleasure of that mortal world is visitant
With them, though they know not what sin is, shyness-

33. How strangely fearful of error the houris are!
Accustomed am I to the darkness of a lonely night,

34. While God’s intimacy in hearts is light
And the purest of women resembles Mary

35. A girl emulating Christ walking in His footsteps
She asks me, “Did people change what flaws were in them?

36. And did events occur other than what occurred?
Did any scholar prefer benefaction and gentleness

37. When much corruption and evil urge harm?
Did they walk the path of affection amongst themselves

38. As a family and tribe in concord sincerely?
Did the People of the Book gain any tolerance

39. Worthy of scripture's high courtliness?”
Have the living treated misery and agony?

40. Has disorder amongst themselves diminished at all?”
Arise and look, you who filled earth with wisdom—

41. Did rhythm help or poems poured out deliver?
The same people as you know, world holding its course,

42. Fate now easy, now hard—
The changing states of transient generations

43. Where first and last resemble each other—
Vying for worldly life, following passions’ bent,

44. Deceit and lies habitual in life, and falseness—
In place of the individual, the herd dominates

45. Over judgment—a great throng that coerces—
And people's word was warped about client and boss

46. To talk of lessor and hireling instead—
Wealth’s influence is absolute, its orders and bans unchallenged

47. Except as it may see fit and signal—
Governments are based on it and kingdoms ruled;

48. Minds and resolve submit to it humbly—
An age whose offspring honed for arms, though aspiring

49. For peace, spreads talk of this and circulates—
Strangely, enjoying security, people suffer

50. Encroachment and aggression that divest and tear away—
It seizes sustenance and earnings from the destitute

51. And houses armies past numbering and ruinous—
When it had cast off restraint in land and sea

52. It embraced the means of heaven in order to soar aloft—
I make my confession to you, not to clergy

53. Or priest—my intimacy after God is merciful—
No mystic on earth denied your asceticism;