1. O Time, how strange are your tribulations!
How can I be happy when sorrow is my lot?

2. You remain hostile, never ceasing
To bring to pass what you have plotted.

3. You rage and dominate with troubles,
Letting loose arrows clutched in evil's grip.

4. No single soul remains secure,
Nor do I see your misguidance come to an end.

5. Your love was never pure for anyone,
Nor did any hopeful attain their goal from you.

6. You made snares for mankind
And thus ensnared many from high and low.

7. You made the lofty fall into the pit of grief
Like boulders swept off cliffs by raging floods.

8. You hid the glorious after their glory
With shrouds of dust between their rise and fall.

9. You left the hopeful nothing to hope for
Except the charity of the generous.

10. How much betrayal of yours made children gray
And stripped the eminent of every high station!

11. How many noble souls you destroyed,
Casting them down from the heights to deepest lows!

12. How many disasters of yours brought hosts of sorrows
Upon creation, till they bent to utter submission!

13. Where is Anushirvan, where Caesar and Kisra?
Where is the Prophet, best of Messengers?

14. Where is the compassionate son of Mansur -
With his grand ambition for magnificent deeds?

15. He was the unique scholar who gained fame
And on the throne of virtue was most revered.

16. The entire region was proud to claim him,
Yet my sadness for him will not abate.

17. He was wise in politics and steeped in knowledge,
Judging matters with neither haste nor delay.

18. For every issue in this world, his insight
Resolved complexities like none other could.

19. Since he left this world, leaving its people behind,
The eyes of the eminent wept copious tears.

20. Rightfully they weep for him, for he was
Their nurturing father in the lap of honor.

21. They cannot be blamed for profuse crying -
Grief for the exceptional is not like grief for peers.

22. Since his loss, pens have wailed in mourning
And drifted sadly into meaningless scribbles.

23. How much their scratching exhibits their torment,
Far from being assuaged or coming to terms!

24. How much they don mourning clothes in sorrow for him,
Complaining of estrangement in sheer humility!

25. The eminent tore their robes of dignity
And rent their garments after such patience.

26. He passed away, breaking my heart and leaving me
To suffer all kinds of worries and tribulations.

27. How many tears of regret my eyes unleashed
Down my breast, till my tears filled their courses!

28. My serenity became a devastated abode,
Can any foundation survive total demolition?

29. If souls could nourish the departed I would ransom him,
But God's decree cannot be changed.

30. Oh, if only I were a garden for him to enter
And enjoy the company of this noble master!

31. But this is impossible, though not beyond imagining,
I offer condolences to Egypt and her people,

32. His father especially, eminent in nobility.
God multiplied rewards for his loss,

33. And through His mercy, he attained the sweetest fountain.
Since God's mercy shone forth, Heaven laid out

34. For you, O Shafiq, its most honorable abode!