1. The delusions of desire and fantasies’ fancies,
Lies’ ravings from dreams,

2. We yearn for eternity, but in vain,
Man is fate's blows and days' prey.

3. His heir inherits his wealth and estates
After him, while he is steeped in sins.

4. Life begins fraught with woe
And harm, and ends as a tilting dove.

5. If lifespan outlasted its term, souls would reject
Their union with bodies outright.

6. While the youth frets, his intentions restless,
He meets his end at the home of stay.

7. And dies like Zayd son of Husayn, seeking refuge
From wealth in allied annihilation’s bosom.

8. In patched robe he walked, rent by decrepitude,
The grave is the meanest of mens’ wives.

9. Its walls were erected with clay from his soil
Enfolding him like a sword's sheath.

10. And death's misfortune befell him when he was hit
By a twisting arrow's dexterous archer.

11. If people warded off death, swords would drive
It away, cleaving through skulls.

12. Its darkness spills on the hands of Qurashī lads
White of face, generous noblemen.

13. Who drag trains fit for a sinuous meadow,
In whose shade thrives a woodland's gloom.

14. And in its folds, their faces shine
Like dawn gleaming through night’s gown.

15. Wealth abounds, and sanctuary fortified,
Glory peers, and veins slumber.

16. With three spears the Hāshimites striker was struck
So Siham’s swords bewailed him with four.

17. And for Abducted Sun, though valiance covers it,
A sleepless eye and a tearful lid remain.

18. They are lions surrounding his tomb, grieving him
With gazes pure as mountain grouse.

19. So at his loss mountains shrink,
Ash of spacious lowlands donning humility's gown.

20. And for the crying lady of Al-Arūnd a heir
Wept when the orphan's father passed away.

21. They were saddened by Crown of Faith until, with time
That insisted shrilly, it made them gaunt.

22. When the virtues gave tidings of him to Highness
Islam's law wore mourning clothes.

23. So he passed away, and I bade him farewell with a caravan
Like a garden laughing through cloud's weeping.

24. Stray words of mine, when transcribed
Artlessness appears in the pens.

25. I do not give them as a reward for the gnostic’s prize
But for kinsmen's twisting bonds.

26. And most deserving by them is one gentle of birth
My uncles his fathers, my paternal kin.

27. If I were able, I would hold back the hand of destiny from him
With spears' determination or swords' slash.

28. And with some youths who befriended peril as if they were
Lions, growling when hid in their lairs.

29. If called to an ugly task, they did not hesitate
Or delay, restraining themselves to headbands.

30. They are savage lions when battle encroaches
And are to the rescue when food runs scarce.

31. Their cauldrons promise the villages a serve
While thunder itself fears promising.

32. And when they become enraged, their quivers—lined up—
Seem like a bitter in truth guardian firebrand.

33. So the paternal uncle is more clement than the Kinaanah's cradle
And the maternal uncle gentler than the tribe of Hammam.

34. They are not of the elite whose origins are depraved
And whose branches have no lifeblood.

35. A grandmother raised them, and their grandfather met
From his intrepidity high glories.

36. The East still suckles them with morn’s first glow
And youth the clouds fashion for their perfection.

37. So hilltops donned his brilliance’ garb
And wrapped themselves in his lightning’s gown.