كوى قلبي الأسى والحزن كيا

وأجرى في المدامع مقلتيا

Sorrow and grief have seared my heart,

and set my two eyes flowing with tears.

وأظهرت الرزية سوء حالي

وفتش مدمعي السر الخفيا

Calamity has revealed my wretched state,

and my tears have exposed the hidden secret.

ومن ذا لائمي إن عشت أبكي

عليك محمد ما دمت حيا

Who could blame me if I lived weeping

for you, Muhammad, as long as I remain alive?

لقد أحوجتني لدموع عيني

أكفكفها وقد كنت الغنيا

You have made me need the tears of my eyes,

which I wipe away, though once I had no need of them.

أخي محمد مذ بنت عني

فبان الصبر عندك يا أخيا

My brother Muhammad, since you departed from me,

patience departed with you, my brother.

وبت أراقب الجوزا سهادا

ودمعي بات نوءاً عقربيا

I spent the night sleepless, watching Orion,

while my tears became a rainstorm of Scorpio.

وأصبح كالخلال ضنى وسقما

أجاوب في الأساء الجوزليا

By morning I am like a toothpick, wasted and sick,

answering the young dove in sorrow.

لئن بكت الحمام على هديل

بكيت فتى منيباً أصمعيا

If the doves have wept for Hadil,

I have wept for a penitent, keen-hearted youth.

فيا حزني عليه وأي حزن

يرد الفائت الماضي عليا

Oh, my grief for him! Yet what grief

can bring the lost and vanished back to me?

وفيت بوده مذ كان حيا

ويأبى أن يكون وفاي فيا

I kept faith with his love while he was alive,

yet my loyalty refuses to stay contained within me.

بكت عيني وحق لها بكاها

عليه وخرت القرا بكيا

My eye has wept—and rightly has it wept

for him; the reciters have fallen down weeping.

أقاتل دهره صوماً ومحيي

لياليه لباريه نجيا

O you who battled through life with fasting, keeping

its nights alive in intimate prayer to your Maker!

يزهدك والتلاوة يا وليي

لقد أحييت مولانا النبيا

[Through] your asceticism and recitation, my dear friend,

you truly kept our master, the Prophet, alive.

صلاة اللَه تغشاه مدى ما

حدا الحادي إلى ليلى المطيا

May God's blessing envelop him for as long as

the camel-driver sings the camels onward toward Layla.

فمن ذا هذا بالقرآن هذا

خلافك يوصل الليل الضحيا

Who, then, recites the Qur'an so swiftly,

other than you, joining night to midmorning?

حروف الذكر عندك فهي حرف

فتتلوها على سهل سويا

The letters of Remembrance are, to you, a single letter,

so you recite them easily and evenly.

وقد كنت الحفي على اليتامى

وبالأعداء لم تكن الحفيا

You were solicitous toward orphans,

but showed no solicitude toward enemies.

عدوك من يعادي اللَه جهرا

وليك من يكون له الوليا

Your enemy was whoever openly opposed God;

your friend, whoever was His friend.

هنيئاً يا ابن عبد اللَه زلفى

لىبك إذا أطعت لهم هنيا

Blessed, son of Abd Allah, is your nearness

to [your Lord], since you obeyed—bliss to them [text unclear].

على الدنيا وساكنها عفاء

خلافك لا سرور ولا نعيا

Dust upon the world and all who dwell in it!

After you, neither joy nor tidings of death matter.

طوى الباري سرورك يا منيت

ولاة الزهد والعلماء طيا

The Creator has folded away your joy, O cherished hope

of ascetic masters and scholars—folded it utterly away.

فموتك ثلمة لا جبر فيها

ودون سدادها المخلوق يعيا

Your death is a breach beyond repair,

and every creature is powerless to seal it.

أتى المحزون بعدك فيك حُزنا

به جمر الأسى أمسى وريا

The mourner after you has brought such grief for you

that sorrow's embers have begun to blaze.

فحزنك ماطر سيلا جحافا

لديّ وقاصداً غيري إتيا

Grief for you rains a sweeping torrent

upon me, but comes more gently to others.

أتسمعني متى أدعوك شاك

أساي إليك أرجوك الأسيا

Do you hear me when I call to you, complaining

of my sorrow to you, looking to you as healer?

فصبري عنك صار الآن كهلا

وحزني في الفؤاد نشا صبيا

My patience without you has now reached middle age,

while grief has sprung up in my heart, a child.

إذا كتم الفؤاد الحزن أفشت

دموع الفقد منك به إليا

When the heart conceals its grief, it is betrayed

to me by tears at being bereft of you.

كأنك أنت من حزني ووجدي

عليك تركتني بهما وصيا

It is as though, because of my sorrow and yearning

for you, you left me guardian of them both.

فحزنك قد محا الأحزان عني

وكان لظى وباقي الحزن كيا

Grief for you has erased all other griefs from me:

it was a blaze, while other sorrow was a branding.

سقتني الحادثات الحزن نهلا

وعلّتني به في الورد ريا

Calamities gave me sorrow as a first draught,

then made me drink my fill again at the watering place.

مضت قبليَّ أترابي وأبقت

لهم ذكرا وأحزانا لديا

My peers passed on before me, leaving

their remembrance and sorrows with me.

بدهر عشت بعدهمو غريبا

أخبِّر عنهمُ عيلان طيا

I lived a stranger in the age that followed them,

telling Aylan and Tayy about them [text uncertain].

ومن يك عاش من قرن لقرن

تنكر منهم طبعاً وزيا

Whoever lives from one generation to another

finds their nature and dress unfamiliar.

فمن لي بالليالي ماضيات

وأترابي يردهم عليا

Who can restore the bygone nights to me,

and bring my peers back to me?

على قبر ابن عبداللَه سارت

غواد باكرت أصلاً عشيا

May there travel to Ibn Abd Allah's grave

morning clouds, coming early, late, and in the evening:

غواد غير مخلفة سقته

حيا متداركاً غدقا وليا

unfailing morning clouds, watering it

with close-following, abundant, successive rain.

وروَّت أقبراً شطريه غيثا

مطلا مرجحنا أو طفيا

And may they drench the graves on either side with rain,

steady-falling, heavy-hanging, or wispy.

وزارته السعادة في ضريح

بها مذ حلّه كان الحريا

May happiness visit him in his tomb,

for he has deserved it since he entered there.

وأبقى في بنيه اللَه صبراً

وحسن عزىً وصيتاً طرمحيا

May God preserve patience in his sons,

good consolation, and towering renown;

وصلى اللَه خالقه عليه

وبلغه النعيم السرمديا

may God, his Creator, bless him

and bring him to everlasting bliss.

محمد ابن عبد اللَه مني

عليك تحيتي ميتاً وحيا

Muhammad, son of Abd Allah, from me

may greetings be upon you, in death and in life.

تزورك في كفاتك كل حين

عساك ترد لي منك التحيا

My greeting visits you in your grave at every moment;

may you send me a greeting in return.

أقل صنائعي وثبوت ودي

أرد عليك في القبر التحيا

The least of my kindnesses, and my love's constancy:

I return your greeting to you in the grave.

وإنك لست تدري كيف حالي

خلياً بعد فقدك أم شجيا

You do not know how I am:

carefree after losing you, or sorrowful.

وإن جماعة قد كنت فيها

تبلغك السلام المندليا

A company of which you once were part

sends you aloeswood-scented greetings.

وأزكى نشرها مذ نبت عنها

إلى الأرماس لا نشراً زكيا

Yet its sweetest scent, since you departed from it

for the graves, is no sweet fragrance.

فراقك صح منك متى التلاقي

ولو طيف بكم في النوم حيا

Your parting is certain—when shall we meet,

even through a dream-vision of you alive?

على المختار صلى اللَه ما إن

رثى ميت وزار الحي حيا

May God bless the Chosen One for as long as

a dead man is mourned and the living visit the living.