1. What man hopes for from his offspring
Is to follow in the steps of their forefathers

2. So count the shrouds before the robes
And the bier before the couch and pillows

3. Man spends his time in peril, for lo
His wedding day is mixed with grieving

4. Death lies between his morn and eve
And his sleep, rising and sitting

5. The dead recite to us the most eloquent speech
Like reciting the Qur'an in perfect diction

6. While the living are heedless of its warning
As if hoping for immortality

7. Death's taste is most vicious
And its peril most dire when it comes

8. No adversity can compare, in its sight
To the merest peel of its rod

9. If given the choice, even a sultan would choose to remain
And be the lowliest of his servants

10. And the prisoner wishes to stay imprisoned
Alive though tormented by his shackles

11. This one who subdued kings by his soul
Not by his weapons and soldiers

12. All the proudest tyrants, to him
Are like smoke that fades after rising

13. The one who preyed on lions, we now see
Laid low in the dust, prey for worms

14. The owner of necks is now owned
By the worms gnawing his veins

15. O God's mercy be upon one
Like a full moon whose fortune has waned

16. The weeping women wailed over him in sorrow
Their moonlike cries leaving the songbirds mute

17. He taught fervor to the hearts of those who loved him
And they in turn taught anguish by their fervor

18. Sleepless, tending to the stars, his companions
If you ask, that is but some of his witnesses

19. Ill-fated is the age that did not
Regard the rights of its glorious martyr

20. The ignorant betrayed the glorious son of nobility
So the tears of the perceptive fulfilled the rites of sorrow

21. He who the people walked under his writs
Now walks under folds of shrouds

22. Carried by the shoulders of men, while his horses
Yearn for their bearer with envious eyes

23. The doves descended upon him with swooping strikes
That made his swordblades like their feathers flutter

24. The princes' assemblies around his bier
Could do naught but enumerate his deeds

25. This pillar was the pillar of a clan
Toppled, its base line bent

26. He assumed leadership from his forebears
As if he bequeathed it to his own heirs

27. Fate granted him its riches, so he was like a close friend
And thus plunder became the epitome of his generosity

28. Fate treasured his household, but alas
In spending, it prioritized its most precious treasures

29. To the safekeeping of The-All Preserver he travelled
With people's hearts among his supplies

30. The men bade him farewell, and so entrusted
The hearts' love like a necklace around his neck

31. A servant stripped himself willingly for his Master
And thus attained exaltation through his stripping

32. The wings of angels enveloped him
Like letters conjoined in their pronounciation

33. God has in the wilderness an inscrutable secret
Minds are confounded by its boundaries

34. The science of the stars cannot unveil it through its monitoring
And the science of sand is misguided in its divination

35. The dust returned to its origin
Like melting ice, its solidity undone

36. An ancient decree, ever renewed
We fluctuate between its new and old

37. Each day we walk closer to it a step
Thus the far is drawn nearer

38. Sometimes it dashes upon us suddenly
Like lightning coursing ahead of its clouds

39. This inevitable end for all who
On earth, preserve the heritage of their covenants

40. Bringing bliss and misery in its advent
Remaining, blending threat and promise

41. Whoever dies in righteous garb, their death
Is truly life, a recidivism of their essence

42. Existence caused their annihilation
Then annihilation caused their existence