1. News that surpassed all other news,
That drew tears flowing like blood.

2. The maidens have downcast eyes,
Their heads bowed, weeping profusely.

3. The white garments flutter anxiously,
Like doves whose wings are stirred.

4. The brown mare trembling, as if
Her fetlocks were bound by a paralyzed hand.

5. The sun is pale, its rays wavering
Like the shimmer of a flood overwhelmed with grief.

6. The morning twilights, appearing at dawn,
Were darkened by shadows cast over them.

7. They mourn Ahmad while the lands bow down,
The earth wails and the morn turns to eve.

8. The eye sheds its waters, scorched with yearning,
While the face conceals its fires in its depths.

9. Necks once held high now bent low in his loss,
Necks that ambition itself aspired to possess.

10. They sang joyfully after adorning themselves
With his peerless necklaces and bracelets.

11. Why must death snatch the bright stars
When they are radiant brides of perfection?

12. Thereby unveiled are the virtuous in their bowers,
And the veils of their hidden abodes torn away.

13. An affliction amassed in souls, each day
Taking away a chaste, tender maiden.

14. A world sacrificing its sons to devastation,
A mother, by the life of their father, perfidious!

15. People coming and going from his presence,
While reaching him becomes difficult for latecomers.

16. No honored soul remains nor people of conscience,
The lofty-branched tree is stripped bare.

17. How often I looked upon life only to find
Its shadows engulfing it, and life but toil and woe.

18. Let no impregnable fortress deceive you, even if
The fortified citadel be garbed all in emerald.

19. Restrain the youthful eye’s ambition, for between it
And its aspirations are many barriers.

20. Had the pigeons aspired with pride
To rival the noble hawks,

21. The prey of kings would have swooped down upon the arrowheads
Where hearts are stirred to madness by passion.

22. They tread on the hems of their coats of mail as though they are
Lions in battle, while in truth they are but light itself.

23. The steeds frowning of face as if they are
Serried ranks when they attack in early dawn,

24. They ransom Ahmad with their souls, and rarely
Can sacrifice avail when death’s blow has struck.

25. He led the regiments while still a youth,
Until his enemies feared his raids.

26. He brandished his blades east and west, so that
The afflicted crimson suns retreated.

27. In the west he won a victory
Satisfying to swords and a ferocious onslaught.

28. No recent glory has warded off dishonor from his thresholds,
A glory more fragrant, an honor more resolute.

29. Swords sharpened and blades unsheathed,
A band intrepid and fearless.

30. The barren earth was impregnated by him and watered
The paths of life, as if it had turned fertile.

31. Patience in the bloom of every calamity
Is an unbending resolve that tries souls.

32. Each soul has an inescapable fate
To which the twisting threads lead inevitably.

33. By God, how excellent is he whom the earth embraced,
Witnessed to by modesty and bashfulness!

34. Of such charm that memories of him
Pass gently as the breath of spring in flower.

35. The earth was scented by him as though
The garden's blossoms were scattered over it.

36. His grave continues to flow with the blood of enemies
Who cower before it, while sorrows ebb and flow.

37. Lightning steals a glimpse as though it were
A young gazelle frolicking with her companions.

38. The breeze draws along whiffs of his perfume,
While the gales cry over him.