1. The life trickles away like a gazelle,
And the living are certain of death's arrival,

2. Passionately we plunge into delusion and carelessness,
Swaying right and left without heed,

3. Save for the sadness of parting, and then what comes next,
Of opposites and twins,

4. We lean on ruinous passions
Deceived by a lying whore,

5. Though life has its limits
We shall surpass them despite stagnation,

6. Is not the oblivious happy?
As death seizes him in negligence,

7. Time passes as we know
Our path leads toward ambush,

8. Even if the ambush is hidden
Its grip has been seen by eyes,

9. It discourages us from hopes and fantasies
And elucidates illusion with evident truth,

10. Beyond the perceptions of hopes
Appointed lifetimes have uncertain endings,

11. Our funerals pass by us frequently
Their processions march toward the cosmos,

12. And they become like dried up meadows
Except for remnants of dried mud,

13. The loved ones passed away and we were overjoyed
With insane joy at their remains,

14. And we see the events that have overwhelmed us
With violent determination,

15. We shall meet the same fate shortly
And become like shrouded bodies,

16. And what fate but a short life
Whose rewards are palms bent over,

17. We wish for relief, but it slips away
Like times of imprisonment,

18. A life filled with bitterness and evil
Sweetened by flattery of the grumpy,

19. Otherwise, the truth is every anxiety
Your share of it supplies certainty,

20. Take provision of it for the hereafter and leave it
For it is not worth attachment to the worthless,

21. And totally divorce yourself from this world
Your divorce, not mine, relent not,

22. I knew you as flexible and evil
Leave me be, O world, leave me!

23. You tricked your sons then pounced on them
And surely you will trick me,

24. Your smile above cunning horrifies me
Like a shiny sword,

25. You displayed beauty then witnessed
So show me, O distortion, show me!

26. You erred, O betrayer, take another path
For I take the right one,

27. Your deceit no longer works
For my aim is the throat of the wicked,

28. I tested you, O concealer of maladies
And you were poison in the clean water,

29. And enough of you, O loose woman
Go take your circular path of eras,

30. Show me where they are, for you know
Tell us the certain news,

31. Leave your fraud, the people have become
Scattered dust, O confuser of the lucid!

32. I bid you farewell though treason is afoot
While we are your loyal customers,

33. Your grooming no matter how disheveled, does not work
For my aim is the throat of the sinner,

34. You withheld the wine from us, or did Amr?
Pour me a pure cup in my right hand,

35. So was it your immorality or Amr’s?
And you have opposed the essence of the faithful,

36. I courted you, not out of desire
Like the despised man courting the bastard woman,

37. I accompanied people with an insincere companionship
And they lived with you in a chronic disease,

38. You sang your melody to me, so turn it away
And rid me of such evil tunes,

39. From early on, I knew you were a trickster
Yet I thought your plain was rugged,

40. Show me where my companions and family are
And your lifetimes that have passed me by,

41. Did not the strikes of death
Remove them from the bent spine?

42. As if when their lives ended
It was a dream that floated before closed eyes,

43. And you, as is your way, care not
Whom you eliminate one time after another,

44. The good masters have gone, and left behind
One who shoulders the sorrowful heart,

45. The hunted game of my people's wealth is gone
As they crammed together in graves and left me,

46. The most pleasant life and tranquility
Alas, no way to tranquility!

47. The pure-hearted left and hence purity of companionship
And purity of people in morals and religion,

48. The encircling bosoms of friendship vanished
And people became like torn ships,

49. The setting of the moon of glory
Oh, what grief and pining!

50. They gave me life through their priceless company
So who will give me such priceless company?

51. They warded off hardships and tribulations
So nations for the shelter have mourned,

52. They were a trustworthy home
So farewell to the trustworthy home!

53. They were rains that poured goodness and bounty
So the rains stopped showering us,

54. They were vast gardens
With lush branches that hopes anticipate,

55. But the storm of doom folded them away
Leaving traces like worn out rags,

56. Their loss threw me into a blaze
That cannot be extinguished by my lamentations,

57. Concerns that are not calmed
By condolences or shedding of tears,

58. And had they been speared I would have doubted
But tongues rushed like torrents,

59. So no worries erupted from my heart
Nor were we burdened awaiting their return,

60. Suppress the tears for another loss awaits
That is its fate for eternity,

61. Are not these hearts refrigerators
To cool the anguish of longing?

62. Does not death pity frailty?
Nor does anyone survive on warm breath,

63. So it does not spare a sturdy edifice
Nor does anyone survive in a guarded refuge,

64. We shall patiently bear these thoughts
Until they vanish in sighs and moans,

65. And condolence lacks power
For them the chests or drowsy eyes,

66. But where there is no hope of return
Patience is the meadow of the bereaved,

67. Does not death's harvesting in us suffice?
When none upheld a sturdy rope,

68. It undermined a tenacious mountain
So the tenacious mountain was undermined,

69. My leader Ahmad we were graced
By the day we attained the sturdy fortress,

70. So do not go far, and never shall we
After your fated departure,

71. I accompanied you, O refined pearl
So it was the company of the dignified wise man,

72. You were a pillar when I lost my pillar
And the turban tilted over the infant,

73. You were my refuge in good and bad
My neighbor under your care in power,

74. You were the helper in ease and hardship
My sacrifice for a brother of loyalty and faith,

75. You confronted the wickedness of a betraying brother
You put your forehead before mine,

76. You belittled yourself to honor me
While you are dearer than a lion in a den,

77. And enemies wanted to remove my status
But you crushed them with calm weapons,

78. You did not threaten them with lightning or thunder
As the gnat poses no threat,

79. You were my sword when they unsheathed
And my shield against calamities around me,

80. You lowered your wing and were my protection
Without bothering with rubbish or gems,

81. Yet now you lie in a pile of rot
Sacrificed to the wailing fates,

82. Though the tomb embraced you, it gained
An ocean that eyes cannot weep dry,

83. You live on in morals and virtues
Like the moon living in the darkness of night,

84. And your loss signals the imminent Resurrection
A kind of portent in the last eras,

85. When the masters of perfection pass on
Goodness in life and religion pass on with them,

86. O you who were hoped for righteous earth
Or mending the corrupt, you are gone,

87. So do not leave, my sacrifice for a friend!
And if you remain, praiseworthy you will be,

88. Will you leave when times are gloomy?
While in your hands was fertile softness,

89. Will you leave when adversities assail
While I depended on your shelter?

90. No, by your father, the house is not empty
Though people swarmed the wadis,

91. When, O Abu Wadhah will I meet you
Between you and your final journey?

92. Alas, we shall not meet again
For you are captive to the will of fate,

93. You left a heart bitter with anguish
Did I weep for this anguished heart?

94. I carry between my wings a fire
Hopeless for calm or stillness,

95. I have no patience for you
But some sensibility for the bereaved,

96. When awareness of patience and acceptance fades
Acceptance fades in the blaze of lamentation,

97. When can you hope life will be comfortable
While you have planted to harvest death?

98. My praised one, did you leave a soul
That can patiently endure the arid eyes?

99. You never feared the supplication of the Merciful
My sacrifice, I cannot bless you nor you me,

100. But the agony of remembrance has ignited
So I took comfort in moaning,

101. And acceptance is necessary
And sufficient for a man are his wits,

102. What is ordained cannot be rejected
It will transpire, inevitably,

103. Whether we are patient or protest
God's decree will unfold in certainty,

104. O Abu Wadhah, patience has folded its wing over me
And lessened the tragedy within me,

105. So I spend nights immersed in worries
Accompanying the tears of a burning coal,

106. And how can I, when within my entrails are wounds
Billowing from heated coals?

107. I see Sana'a, how gloomy its environs
Though you made it radiant,

108. Your bereavement, O you who lost a son, is prolonged
And your wailing is the wailing of withered branches,

109. Grief has worn you out, O Khasa of sorrow
And I have what you have, so make me happy,

110. For your breasts did not lack creation
While your chests poured with lamentations,

111. For how many virtues, O Sana'a, you wore
Like precious pearls from him,

112. Your illuminated mosque when abandoned
Of glorification and clear remembrance,

113. Its mihrab cried, when the spheres
Roamed between the eyelids,

114. It deserves to cry, fallen from grace
To ruination after light,

115. O his travels, I grieve for it
And my villages are ruined amidst gardens,

116. O you who clarified Sharia and had no equal
Clarifier of Sharia, who was your equal?

117. O preparer, our Master Al-Khaulani
You prepared to live without cheeks,

118. For the illuminating scholar has become extinct
Among rocks and mud,

119. His schools have become desolate places
For the hooting owl after the good old days,

120. As if they never sang with the rulings
Of the honest Prophet's law,

121. As if they never sang with Al-Kafi Al-Mufid
The scales of radiance above doubts,

122. O Abu Wadhah, if you met your end
Man’s course is destined for a time,

123. Upon you is vast mercy, you have attained
Everlasting rewards and abundant gifts.