عزاء فما كل حي بحي

ولا كل عيش يدوم هني

Take consolation: not every living being stays alive,

nor does every life remain pleasant.

وما هذه الدار للخلق دارا

ولكنها نهزة للغبي

Nor is this abode a lasting home for creation;

it is only an opportunity for the fool to seize.

وللمرء يوم يساق إليه

سريع النجا سوق هدي الهديّ

Every man has a day toward which he is driven,

swift in his going, as a sacrificial offering is led.

ومن أخطأته المنايا بكورا

أصابته وقت الضحى والعشي

Whoever death misses early in the morning,

it strikes at forenoon and evening.

فما يرحم الموت شيخاً كبيراً

ولم يعف عن قبض روح الصبي

Death has no mercy on an aged man,

nor refrains from taking a child's soul.

وسيّان في الموت صفر اليدين

لعمري ورب الثراء الغني

Equal in death are the empty-handed,

by my life, and the rich possessor of wealth.

ولم يسار الموت من عقله

دخيل ولا ذا النهى والهيزري

Nor has death dealt gently with one whose mind

is impaired, nor the wise or the swaggering.

فموت الرعول بأوتادها

كموتة عكرشة بالدجي

The death of troops along with their pillars

is like a she-hare's death in the dark.

وما الموت إلا سبيل به

ممر إلى الموقف الحشرويّ

Death is only a path along which

one passes to the standing-place of the Last Gathering.

وقد ضحكت ويك آمالنا

بآمالنا ضحك مغزٍ غزي

Our hopes—alas!—have laughed

at our hopes, like a raider himself raided.

وها نحن مثل البهائم ترعى

نبات الأماني بروض ربي

And here we are, like beasts that graze

on the growth of wishes in a lush meadow.

ولم ندر أن الردى قانص

بأشراكه في المكان الخفي

We did not know that death is a hunter,

with his snares in a hidden place.

نروح ونغدو لكشف المعاصي

بطاعة طاغ عدو عصيّ

We go at dusk and dawn to parade sins,

obeying a tyrant, an enemy, a rebel.

ونفرح بالمال والمال فان

ونهتز للمقبل الدنيوي

We rejoice in wealth, though wealth must perish,

and thrill at approaching worldly fortune.

ولسنا ننافس في الحمد جداً

وللعمل الصالح الأُخروي

We do not earnestly compete for praise,

or for righteous deeds for the Hereafter.

إذا نال منا امرؤ ثروة

تبهج فيها بتيه وغيّ

When one of us acquires wealth,

he rejoices in it with arrogance and error.

ولم نعتبر بالذي قد سقته

المنايا بكاس دهاق روي

We take no lesson from the one whom

death has made drink from a brimming, thirst-quenching cup.

فأصبح تحت صلاد الصفا

وحيداً خلاف الفراش الوطيّ

So he came to lie beneath hard slabs of rock,

alone, far from a soft bed.

إذا مات للمرء أصل وفرع

وترب أيرجو بقاء البقيّ

When a man's root and branch have died,

and his peer, can he hope the survivor will endure?

وأعجب شيء فميت يعزي

على الميت ميتاً فأعجب شي

Strangest of all: a dead man consoles

a dead man over the dead—how strange a thing!

فأحمد في إثر أحمد أودى

شفيع البرايا الرسول النبي

Thus Ahmad has died after Ahmad,

creation's intercessor, the Messenger, the Prophet.

عليه صلاة من اللَه تترى

مدى استن برق بداني الجني

Upon him be blessings from God, one after another,

as long as lightning races where the fruit hangs near.

يعزي القلوب بهذا وهذي

على حر جمر الاساء الوري

He consoles hearts with this and that,

against the heat of sorrow's glowing coals.

فيا خالي البال دعني وحزني

فليس الخلي بحال الشجي

O you free of care, leave me and my grief;

for the carefree are not as the grief-stricken.

أمن بعد أحمد أسلو عزاء

فتى خلف الأورع الألمعيّ

Can I forget my grief and find solace after Ahmad,

that youth, heir to the most devout and discerning?

أخي ثقتي مفزعي منجعي

أميني خديني ضنيني صفييّ

My brother, my trusted one, my refuge, my recourse;

my trusted keeper, my companion, my treasure, my chosen friend;

حبيبي خلاصي مدان مقاصي

مطيع معاصي صفيي وليي

my beloved, my salvation, drawing near and holding aloof;

obedient and defiant, my intimate, my friend;

عمادي سنادي وجوهر فكري

وعيبة سري المنيب الحفي

my pillar, my support, the jewel of my thought,

the casket of my secret, penitent and caring;

من البدلاء الكرام المساعي

فأكرم به من فتى أحوذي

one of the saintly substitutes, noble in their endeavors.

How noble a resourceful youth he was!

مميت النهار صياماً ومحيي ال

ليالي قياماً بخوف نجي

Killing the day with fasting, and reviving the

nights with prayer, in whispered fear.

فتى كان أحيى من الخود طبعا

وأشجع في اللَه من حيدري

A youth who was by nature shyer than a lovely maiden,

and braver in God's cause than a Haydari warrior;

وأفصح من رأوه طوعه

وأذهن من خرنق في دويّ

the most eloquent they had seen, speech at his command,

and keener-witted than a young hare in the wilderness.

تعوم وما ظفرت بالنجا ال

مصاقيع في لفظه المعنوي

They swim, yet find no way to safety—the

master orators—in his meaning-laden speech.

نشا مثل منشا سحابة محل

وأقشع بعد انسكاب الولي

He arose like a cloud rising in drought,

and dispersed after the follow-on rain had poured.

لئن كان أودى فباق علينا

له رسم فضل وحزن وجي

Though he has perished, there remains with us

the trace of his excellence and an aching grief.

وعلمي بأن مثل العمد لم يب

ق في ذي الليالي بعمر ملي

And I know that even those like pillars did not

remain amid these nights for a long lifetime.

وكان شهياَ ليلقى المنايا

على حبه للاله العلي

He was eager to meet the fates of death,

in his love for God Most High.

أعد لملقى المنية زاداً

ثواب العفيف النظيف الرضي

He prepared provisions for his meeting with death:

the reward of the chaste, the pure, the well-pleasing.

فيا ليت شعري بعد وداعي

فماذا الذي قد لقيت أخي

If only I knew, after my farewell,

what you have encountered, my brother!

أحيي القبور وسكانها

لأجلك أرجو ثواب المحيي

I greet the graves and their dwellers

for your sake, hoping for the greeter's reward.

أمر على قبرك الآن أبكي

دلوها عليك بدمع سري

I pass your grave now, weeping,

distraught for you, with tears streaming.

فهل أنت يا أحمد سامع

دعاي وهل ناظر سوء زيي

Do you, O Ahmad, hear

my call, and do you see my wretched appearance?

مصائب فقدك ألقينني

لقى سلو حزن لطول النقي

The calamities of losing you have left me

a cast-off skin on rough ground along the long sand dune.

سقى قبرك المزن نهلا وعلا

بنوء الثريا ونوء الجدي

May rainclouds water your grave, draught after draught,

with the rains of the Pleiades and al-Jady.

وجاد قبوراً حواليك صارت

جوارك من ازكويّ زكي

May they drench the graves around you that have become

your neighbors, each holding a pure Izkawi.

وروحك راحت بلطف الال

ه في جنة الخلد جار النبي

And your soul has gone, through the kindness of

God, to the Garden of Eternity, a neighbor of the Prophet.

عليه صلاة من اللَه ما إن

ترامت لليالي حداة المطيّ

Upon him be blessings from God as long as

camel-drivers journey far through the nights.