1. O you who lost your only son, I wondered at
An illness that defied you, though you oft subdued it,

2. Had it been a healing medicine, you would have healed him,
Or a beneficial love, you would have benefited him.

3. You almost compelled fate with your knowledge and piety
To prolong what it had entrusted.

4. But you petitioned fate to prolong his life,
So sickness lingered in what you had created.

5. He had a noble character and was a lofty chief,
He wore precious jewelry, and so you cherished him.

6. The best of traits were delighted with him, cutting short
The words of the elegist to eulogize him.

7. Today hopes for virtues and loftiness
Throng at the funeral of him you buried.

8. O wise expatriate whom
Hardship has straitened, though you have eased it.

9. I forbid you to meditate upon the journey you contemplate,
For I have great maturity and immediate experience.

10. It is true in life that you lose
By buying it, and prosper if you sell it.

11. But I weep for a bereaved mother,
You have aggrieved her, and a father you have aggrieved.

12. I will look upon every flowering branch,
And see you brought it, having diversified it.