1. Saad was the best of a struggling nation
But Saad is gone, never to return

2. He was leader of the army of truth in Egypt
Pride and shadow of an army without a leader

3. He was supporter of truth since his youth
Despite adversities and a watchful guardian

4. Nothing mattered to Saad but Egypt's cause
And Saad's cause was the greatest of causes

5. Saad's greatest trait was his honesty
No schemer could reach it from the Nile

6. Fate struck Egypt with a blow
That made it shed copious tears

7. For Saad's death was a nation's death
Though Saad's death was but one man's

8. Saad died immortalized, his memory lives
What memory lives greater than one immortal?

9. Egypt sheathed its sword after his death
And surrendered it to soil and permafrost

10. Saad died, nay a paragon died
And hopes of a rising nation with purpose

11. All Arabdom lost its Saad
And Egypt but some of these losses

12. Of Saad and his life naught remains for it
Except words atop minarets eternal

13. Of Saad naught remains except his memory
Gleaming like a receding planet

14. Of Saad's height and stance naught remains
Except a cold body sans warmth

15. Those hopes are but myths
And those wishes but prostrate dreams

16. I ransom you, so generous before death
And a cold body after demise

17. On earth they built you a lofty grave
Had they able, above mausoleums aloft

18. They made its hollow your tomb
Caring not what houses the dead

19. Why would one who was a master care for a grave
With a thousand graves in hearts of the glorious?

20. Neither bright day sun suits your rest
Nor night's star-studded sky a watcher

21. What griefs but yours in Iraq for Egypt?
Though my tears witness in part

22. My eyes will cry for Saad
And my poems' eyes will cry for Saad

23. Each verse a teardrop
For the lamented, each and all

24. I hope to be as a flower
On his grave, or pearl in necklace

25. Glorious was the funeral procession
A spectacle unlike any seen

26. Farewell to that coffin when they walked with it
To the grave, in a mass of people teeming

27. Lost in the throng, I saw naught
But downcast or glancing, finding

28. Naught hearing but a stifled sob
Or sigh of one resigned

29. Some wailed in lament, some grieved
Some at fate indignant railed

30. No solace til fate's rule ends
And Saad returns not to them

31. Sorrow's tears in both calamities
When great disasters allow no outlet

32. Kin's eyes when disaster strikes
No less than strangers' far removed

33. Show me one to fill his place
And dress Egypt's gaping wound

34. Great in life and after was Saad
Above thrones and under permafrost

35. The coffin wrapped in procession
In Egypt's flag, bereft and wanting

36. They carried him, multitudes behind
On a huge cannon those strong arms' place

37. Saad was not one among a nation
Nay, a nation among but one

38. That face now under earth's care
Earth shelter it gently, not harsh

39. On you, O earth, though earth be just
They pray shortly after those praises

40. It is but sleep of death, long it lasts
No awakening for one laid to rest

41. That sword protecting Egypt now gone
To a presence beyond want or loss

42. Ascending erstwhile, descending never
Now by grave descending, ascending never

43. O Saad's grave you are but a cavity
That embraced Egypt's finest warrior

44. O Saad's grave in you a nation's hopes
Preserve them and preserve, be gentle

45. Egypt slept not, when people attacked
Defending the precious with lives

46. Its independence born in his name
Your smile to the child like a father

47. Saad, you never ceased to fight for Egypt
Though fate was not kind

48. Till fate reluctantly showed favor
To some aims you sought

49. Your solace that you grasped
One by one each entirely

50. Will time again show Egypt favor
And give another Saad for ordeals?

51. All Egypt's sects loved him
For above creeds is love indeed

52. A nation prayed in churches
A nation prayed in mosques

53. He was gentle with those tolerant
And unmoving rock before bigots

54. Fighting if times allowed
Crouching when unfavorable the times

55. Wise, he saw proper time and place
For words to benefit and avail

56. Morals he showed people perfected
If able in representation to collect praise

57. Saad once filled Egypt and beyond
Filled people's mouths like newspapers

58. His words pulled hearts like magnets
Scattered hearts remote

59. Egypt bore none his equal in war
Braving calamities with courage

60. None matched his genius in Egypt
Not static but dynamic in his vision

61. No anomaly his uniqueness in life
For geniuses break norms and rules

62. I felt sublime in the heights of thought
And saw what I'd never seen before

63. I found the face of truth cold
Though I thought it otherwise

64. Life entire struggle on this earth
You'll find no neutral above it

65. None escapes death's inevitability
Though many its courses to avoid

66. People are like plants on their land
And death but a reaper when they're ripe

67. Tombs that shelter the decayed
Heedless their sleepers of their beds

68. Unconcerned that they aren't spacious
For occupants, still like permafrost

69. Many speak ill yet their hearts
In secret with them speak no evil

70. Some you see as absent though present
Others present, in selves as if absent

71. All see themselves true when faced
With arguments white, not obstinate

72. My turn shall come though I lament death not
Deliver me from schemers' evil

73. And from breath of devils and darkness
Of sneering, envy and hatred

74. Like others I shall end my tribulation
On earth or insky, my purpose complete

75. I care not for life after death
On Mars or Mercury no longing