1. What grief has stricken you, O Semaan!
Lebanon is shaken by its impact.

2. The news reached Egypt in sorrow,
So it is delirious, with no console.

3. God knows what your family endured
During the forties and with the Brethren.

4. So leadership fell on the open-handed youth
With the gentle heart and glib tongue.

5. On a dear one who built from prestige a edifice
That no other building could rival,

6. He attained what he wished and withdrew
From a race while his peers were still running.

7. That is, if generosity was his way
And giving freely his habit and kindness his work

8. Every act of good he had a share in
And answered the calls of petitioners whoever they were

9. It is no wonder the country's elders and notables
Wished to honor him.

10. When he was gone, they lost their sustenance
And his kindness that they missed was cruelty to them.

11. Just recently, a heart that saw
Where in the hidden world that time had gone

12. There was a people who loved him and whom he loved
And he kept the solemn pact, and so did they

13. If they were struck by afflictions—things from which
No ally or helper were immune—

14. They did not say, “Who has undone them?” For Semaan
Had undone them, vigilant he was.

15. Today they are helpless to offer redemption, and
No use in grieving or in anguished lament

16. Ah! The sorrow poured on the heart
By the bereaved father and the sons

17. But the children are the finest recompense
Hoped for by homelands after him:

18. Daughters cultivated and sons—
The choicest blooms youth ever sprouted

19. O you who mourn, have patience, for nothing
Helps but acquiescence and compliance.

20. You have God, and He is the best Guardian,
And for him who met an early fate, Heaven

21. God requites every good loan manifold,
So the Merciful repaid him double.