1. Do not weep if some of the people hurry on a journey,
When you are certain that all will follow in their tracks.

2. And make haste when you rise to bid farewell slyly,
Lest you miss the chance for farewell in the morning light.

3. Death snatches souls as they fly,
From embryos to elders bent with age.

4. Days go by when it is not said,
“Zaid died, Hind died”, in the news.

5. O day of Joseph among days we deem it,
The peer of its renowned owner among mortals!

6. A day when people's hearts were straitened
With patience though their eyes overflowed with tears,

7. A day when the pillar of glorious deeds was shaken,
And the sun darkened in grief for the moon.

8. A day when the non-Arabs before the Arabs were mourning,
Saying, “Where is the generous one of the desert and the towns?”

9. Where is he for whom the clouds were summoned,
Whenever the skies were niggardly with rain?

10. Where is he who fulfilled his Creator's right,
In ease or adversity, vigour or distress?

11. Where is he who was the refuge of those seeking refuge,
And the protection of a neighbour against want and harm?

12. He has fallen silent, hearing and seeing nothing.
He whose hearing and sight filled the people!

13. He whom the lofty, splendid palaces could not contain,
Is now enclosed in the narrowest tomb!

14. The scent of musk used to spread from his perfumes,
And his soft skin was hurt by the ink of letters.

15. Blessed of face, of praiseworthy traits,
His heart pure of rancour and spite.

16. He lived among us happily attaining his wish,
And died leaving us at the height of contentment.

17. The nobility walked by his bier,
Beneath canopies with rods and images.

18. All wept for him with tears that flowed together,
Even those who do not weep at the fall of a noble soul.

19. Woe for the deceitful glamour of our life beguiling us!
We were warned against it since we were small.

20. We grew old but our youthfulness was not renewed
By it, nor did an eye awake to vigilance.

21. This is the path to the abode of eternity for us.
No difference between long and short here.

22. It is the sickness which medicine was powerless to cure,
And against which stern caution is of no avail.

23. O heedless ones, awake today and take heed
Of the lessons you encounter in life!

24. Death is the greatest matter confronting us,
Yet death is easier than its aftermath of perils.