أصابت سهام الحتف يا حسرة الدهر

صريح قريش والخلاصة من فهر

The arrows of death have struck—O sorrow of time!—

the trueborn scion of Quraysh, the quintessence of Fihr.

لقد نثل الدهر الكنانة رامياً

حشاشة نفس من كنانة والنضر

Time has indeed emptied the quiver, shooting at

a soul's vital spark from Kinanah and al-Nadr.

نعى البرق غيث الناس في كل أزمة

وعهدي به قبلا يبشر بالقطر

Lightning—the telegraph—announced the death of the people's rain in every crisis,

though I had known it before to bring glad tidings of rain.

وقد حملت أسلاكه نبأ به

تقصف اسلاك الأضالع والصدر

Its wires have borne news at which

the wires of the ribs and breast are shattered.

نعى وهو لم يعرف حقيقة من نعى

إلى الناس والرامي يصيب ولا يدري

It announced his death without knowing the true nature of him whose death it announced

to the people; the marksman hits his mark unawares.

فلا شيء أقوى منه إذ خف سائراً

بخطب وهي فيه الشديد من الأسر

Nothing is stronger than it, as it sped swiftly onward

with a calamity beneath which even the mightiest frame grew weak.

وبرقية في قلب كل موحد

لها قبسات من ضرام ومن حرّ

And a telegram, within the heart of every believer in God's oneness,

has sparks of blazing fire and heat.

مضى علم الاعلام والآية التي

حوت حكماً أجلت عن العدو الحصر

The standard of all standards has passed away, the sign that

held wisdom too exalted for counting and reckoning.

وقد غاب عن أفق الهداية نير

يجل عن التشبيه بالشمس والبدر

A luminary has vanished from the horizon of guidance,

too exalted to be compared with the sun or the full moon.

تنكر وجه الصبح يوم وفاته

وفي الوجه عنوان السلامة والنكر

The face of morning changed on the day of his death,

and the face bears the signs of well-being and calamity.

وروعنا رأد الضحى ثم صرّحت

ظهيرته فينا بقاصمة الظهر

Early forenoon alarmed us; then spoke plainly

its noon among us, with a back-breaking blow.

بكى الركن حزناً والمقام برّحت

رزية اسماعيل بالبيت والحجر

The Corner and the Station wept in grief; sorely did

the loss of Isma'il afflict the House and the Hijr.

وقد أوحش المحراب حزناً لقائم

به الليل يحيى بالصلاة وبالذكر

The prayer niche has grown desolate in grief for one who stood

there, bringing the night to life with prayer and remembrance.

فقيد نسينا آية الصبر بعده

فهل نسخت من بعده آية الصبر

A departed one after whom we forgot the verse of patience—

has the verse of patience been abrogated after him?

فمن لمحاريب التقى ومجارس

مكللة أعوادها منه بالدر

Who, then, will tend piety's prayer niches and assemblies,

their wooden frames crowned with pearls from him?

محياه يتلو آية النور هادياً

ويتلو علينا مجده آية الطهر

His countenance recites the Verse of Light, offering guidance,

and his glory recites to us the verse of purity.

أصورته هاتيك أم هي سورة

لناظرها أجر التلاوة والذكر

Is that his portrait, or is it a surah,

whose viewer earns the reward of recitation and remembrance?

فيا جوهراً زان الوجود بهاؤه

وسبحان بارى جوهر اللطف والبر

O jewel whose radiance adorned existence,

glory be to the Creator of the jewel of kindness and goodness!

فغالت به الاقدار واستأثرت به

وقد كان أهلا للمغالات بالقدر

But fate struck him down and claimed him for itself,

though he deserved the most lavish esteem.

لقد كان في الدنيا منار هداية

به يهتدي في ظلمة الليل من يسري

He was indeed a beacon of guidance in this world,

by which the night traveler found his way through darkness.

وغامضة لا يدرك الفكر نهجها

أنار دياجيها بثاقبة الفكر

And an obscure matter whose course thought cannot discern—

he illumined its dark depths with penetrating thought.

يعز على الإسلام فقد حميه

وناصره إن قيل أين أولو النصر

Islam finds the loss of its defender hard to bear,

and of its champion, when one asks, 'Where are those who bring aid?'

أقول وقد ساروا به يحملونه

إلى القبر مإذا تحملون إلى القبر

I say, as they set off carrying him

to the grave, 'What are you carrying to the grave?'

حملتم يداً بيضاء كانت بجودها

على السنة الشهباء أندى من القطر

You have carried a white, beneficent hand whose generosity

was more bountiful than rain upon a drought-stricken year.

طواه الردى طي الرداء وذكره

بنشر المساعي لم يزل طيب النشر

Death folded him away as a robe is folded, yet his memory,

through the spreading of his deeds, remains sweetly fragrant.

رأيت حياة المرء ظلا وإنما

تدوم حياة المرء بالحمد والذكر

I have seen that a person's life is a shadow; only

through praise and remembrance does a person's life endure.

ثمانون حولا قد طواهن قائماً

بتشييد دين الله بورك من عمر

Eighty years he folded away, steadfastly engaged

in building up God's religion—blessed be that lifetime!

ولله نفس أخلص الله سرّها

فيا قدّست نفساً وقدّس من سرّ

God's is a soul whose inner secret He purified!

How sanctified a soul, and how sanctified its secret!

أمن عنصري ماء وطين تكونت

خلائق أم صيغت سبائك من تبر

From the two elements, water and clay, were there formed

these virtues, or were they cast as ingots of pure gold?

وبالخلف الباقي لنا خير سلوة

وإن كان لا يسلى الفقيد مدى الدهر

In the successor who remains, we have our best consolation,

though the departed can never be forgotten throughout time.

فما أفلت شمس الامامة والهدى

عن الأفق حتى أشرق الكوكب الدري

The sun of the imamate and guidance had not set

below the horizon before the radiant star shone forth.

وما جن ليل الخطب حتى تصدّعت

دجى الليل بالمهدي عن فلق الفجر

Nor had the night of calamity fallen before

through al-Mahdi its darkness split to reveal the break of dawn.

إذا ما ابو المهدي ودّع راحلا

فمهديها من بعده صاحب الأمر

If Abu al-Mahdi has bidden farewell and departed,

then its Mahdi, after him, is the one in command.

يجود رياض الفقه صيب علمه

فتزهو رياض الفقه بهجة الزهر

The downpour of his knowledge waters the gardens of jurisprudence,

and the gardens of jurisprudence glow with the beauty of flowers.

ولو لم يمد البحر زاخر فضله

لما قيل في الامثال حدّث عن البحر

Had the swelling abundance of his bounty not replenished the sea,

it would not be said in proverbs, 'Speak of the sea.'

فيا سائلاً عن اسرة المجد والعلا

وأهل العلوم الغر والأوجه الغر

O you who ask about the family of glory and eminence,

the masters of luminous learning and radiant faces:

هم آل صدر الدين فاقصدهم تجد

منار الهدى والعلم والمجد والفخر

they are the house of Sadr al-Din; seek them, and you will find

the beacon of guidance, knowledge, glory, and pride.

مصابيح إيمان مفاتيح حكمة

لهم ألسن بالحق تنطق عن خبر

Lamps of faith, keys to wisdom,

their tongues speak truth from experience.

نوال بلا من وحكم بلا هوى

وحلم بلا ذل وعز بلا كبر

Bounty without reminders of favors, judgment without caprice,

forbearance without abasement, might without arrogance.

إذا مات منهم سيد قام سيد

ففي كل عصر منهم بهجة العصر

When one lord among them dies, another rises;

in every age, one of them is the delight of that age.

رسالة شرع المصطفى اليوم فوضت

إلى الحسن الزاكي النقيبة والنجر

The mission of the Chosen One's law has today been entrusted

to al-Hasan, pure in character and lineage.

هو الحبر إلا أن آيات فضله

محررة بالنور لا النقش والحبر

He is the learned scholar, yet the signs of his excellence

are written in light, not in script and ink.

وبالندب صدر الدين يعتصم الرجا

واعظم به ذخراً لملتمس الذخر

In the noble Sadr al-Din, hope takes refuge—

and what a treasure he is for anyone seeking a treasure!

أرى الدين قلباً وهو صدر يصونه

حفاظاً وهل قلب يصان بلا صدر

I see religion as a heart, and he is a breast that guards it

in devoted care; can a heart be protected without a breast?

ومن بالغ شأو الجواد وحيدر

لدى حلبات العلم بالجري والكرّ

And who can reach the stature of al-Jawad and Haydar

in the arenas of knowledge, racing and charging?

فداموا دوام الانجم الزهر في السما

على انهم أهدى من الانجم الزهر

May they endure as long as the radiant stars in heaven,

though they guide more surely than the radiant stars.