1. Oh nights, do not be fooled by hope
How many masters lie under layers of soil

2. O you who futilely seek respite from his capricious life
Be brief, for life is nothing but worries

3. How many lovely scenes faded in their prime
Claimed by the hand of death beyond remedy

4. And how many ambitious and valiant kings
Lie under the soil, how many brave heroes

5. And how many imams to whom dynasties lead
Now isolated from power through death

6. And how many dignitaries made lowly by death
Though neither money nor power shielded them

7. O you who know the ways of time, let your knowledge suffice
And if you are ignorant of the turns of fate, inquire

8. Have your ears in your time or before
Heard that any woman escapes unchanged?

9. Or have you seen any eminent and exalted
Whose excellence increased with what they attained?

10. Or have you a relation safe from death?
Or are your eyes blind to a funeral procession?

11. Has death ever spared one for their dignity?
Or has anyone lived an age without decline?

12. Death's door admits all, but the virtuous
Are carried on the wings of great deeds

13. The passing of a man of knowledge and wisdom
Is not like one without knowledge or deeds

14. Nor is the death of one whose nation mourns
Like that of the common and base souls

15. Thus we mourn and tears rain down
Like a torrential downpour

16. For an imam, an ambitious and judicious leader
An eloquent sage, refuge of sciences

17. Whose hands drew from the sea of guidance
And narrated the arts of the early masters

18. His many works are precious
Needing no refinements to their meanings

19. Oh Lord, by the praiseworthy guide and his companion
In the cave, then the martyr of the house, then Ali

20. Forgive by Your grace Your servants, overlook their sins
And save them from fear and turmoil

21. Be gentle with Your servant Abdullah who composed this
For You are eternally the Most Gentle from eternity

22. Then blessings upon the purest of mankind in lineage
And his family, companions, followers and comrades