رضى بما قدر الباري وألزمنا

لا نشتكي القدر الجاري ولا الزمنا

Contentment with what the Creator has decreed and made binding upon us.

We do not complain of the unfolding decree, nor of time.

نحن العبيد قضت فينا مشيئته

لسنا نقول على المكروه أو زمنا

We are servants; His will has passed judgment upon us.

We do not cry over adversity, “Alas, O time!”

لِلّه فينا جرت أحكامه فقضت

حرف المقادير دون الفعل أحزمنا

God's judgments have run their course in us and decreed

the turns of fate, beyond the action of our most prudent [wording unclear].

إن المقادير فينا فهي قاضية

موت الصغار وتبقي الشيب والزمنا

Fate among us indeed pronounces sentence:

the death of the young, while leaving the gray-haired and the infirm.

وحكمة اللَه ما حطن العقول بها

هذا ناي عمره منا وذاك دنا

God's wisdom has not been encompassed by minds:

this one's span of life lies far from us; that one's draws near.

مات الصحيح ومن يبلى يعيش وذا

طفلاً يموت ويبقى شائب كهنا

The healthy one has died, while the wasting one lives; and this one

dies a child, while an ancient gray-haired man survives.

ومن لقرن بقي عن قرنه نقرت

عيناه ما ساءه مذ فارق القرنا

Who will help one left without his companion? Gouged out are

his eyes—how he has suffered since parting from his companion!

ولا أضر على الحر الكريم متى

بغير من يرتضيه صحبه قرنا

Nothing harms a free and noble man more than when

he is paired with someone whose company he does not approve.

شكراً لك اللَه إني عشت في زمن

من قبحه ليت ما فيه أكون أنا

Thanks to You, God: I have lived in an age

so ugly that I wish I were not in it.

نظرت ما كرهت عيني له وأبت

نفسي وقد يبتلى ذو العقل بالأفنا

I have seen what my eye hated and

my soul rejected; even the rational may be afflicted with folly.

رمت الهدنات لي منه فما حصلت

هيهات ما الدهر إن هادنته هدنا

I sought truces with it for myself, but gained none.

Far from it! Time makes no peace, even if you make peace with it.

إن سر ضر وإن أعطاك نافلة

أبادها ومتى يولي الرضى دخنا

If it delights, it harms; if it gives you a bounty,

it destroys it; whenever it grants contentment, it taints it.

كم راقد في سرور صدر ليلته

وعند أعجازه في قبره دفنا

How many have slept in joy at the start of their night,

and by its end were buried in their grave.

يا للعجائب منا الأصل ندفنه

والفرع منا إلى الأخرى تقدمنا

O the wonders among us! We bury the root,

and our branch goes before us to the other life.

كيف اللذاذة عقبى ذين في زمن

عشنا به وصفاء العيش كيف هنا

What pleasure can follow those two in an age

we have lived through? How can life's serenity be sweet?

وهل رأيتم إذا ما الأصل مات وما

ت الفرع يبقى الذي فيه يكون بنا

Have you ever seen, when the root has died and

the branch has died, anything remaining in which to build?

نبني ونغرس في الدنيا ونسكن ما

يبني سوانا ومن غرس اليدين جنى

We build and plant in this world, and inhabit what

another builds, while he reaps what our two hands planted.

آمالنا فعلى أعمالنا ضحكت

مذ أيقنت إنما الدنيا رياض منى

Our hopes have laughed at our deeds

since they learned the world is only gardens of wishes.

نسهو ونلهو بآمال مموهة

لم ندر ماذا إلى العقبى يراد بنا

We are heedless and amuse ourselves with gilded hopes,

not knowing what is intended for us in the hereafter.

نرعى رياض المنى حتى إذا عرضت

حدباء محمولة فالنوح روعنا

We graze in the gardens of wishes, until there appears

a curved bier being carried, and wailing terrifies us.

كأننا سرب ريم نرتعي زهراً

تروعنا نبأة القناص مكتمنا

As though we were a herd of white gazelles grazing on blossoms,

startled by the faint sound of a hunter lurking hidden.

والموت كالقائص الحبال مستتراً

لم ندر إلا وفي الأشراك كتفنا

Death, like a hunter setting snares, lies concealed;

we knew nothing until our arms were bound in the traps.

حتى متى أنا مغرور بأمنية

أغلث الفعل تياها بدار فنا

How long shall I remain beguiled by a wish,

tainting my deeds, arrogant in an abode of extinction?

ليتي فداء الذي وسدته حجرا

وقد صففت على أضلاعه اللبنا

Would that I could ransom the one whose pillow I made a stone,

having laid mud bricks in rows over his ribs.

غسلته بدموع فوقه وكفت

يا ليت أجفانه كانت له جفنا

I washed him with tears that poured down upon him;

would that his eyelids had been a sheath for him.

ففي فؤادي محل لا يزال به

علام دمعي عليه دائماً هتنا

For he has a place in my heart where he still remains;

why do my tears stream ceaselessly over him?

نشا لدي كمنشا مزنة قشعت

وما سقى ودقها سهلا ولا حزنا

He grew beside me like a raincloud that arose, then dispersed,

its rain watering neither level ground nor rugged land.

طول البكاء عليه ما استطعت به

إلا الأسى لوعة توري به وضنى

For all my long weeping over him, I gained through it

only sorrow, a searing anguish kindled by it, and wasting sickness.

هيهات يجدي البكا من ليس أوبته

ترجى ولا الصبر عنه ينسخ الحزنا

In vain! Weeping cannot help one whose return

is not hoped for; nor does patience at his loss erase sorrow.

لو كان يجدي البكا ميتاً بكيت له

بأدمع تقرح الأجفان والوجنا

If weeping could help the dead, I would weep for him

with tears that ulcerate the eyelids and cheeks.

من راحمي بعده حزناً عليه وقد

فارقت فيه لذيذ العيش والوسنا

Who will pity me after him, grieving for him, when I have

lost through him life's sweetness and sleep?

طباعه جددت ذكراه لي فغدت

للغرم مني على فقدانه عزنا

His traits renewed his memory for me, becoming

[unclear] for the anguish in me over his loss.

إذا تذكرت أخلاقاً تذوب له

كبدي وكسر تأسيفي له الضبنا

When I remember his qualities, for him

my liver melts, and my mourning for him breaks my side.

خلائقاً مثل دبر الماء صافية

على النديم فلا ملحا ولا أسنا

Qualities pure as the water's last portion [reading uncertain],

toward his companion—neither salty nor stagnant.

حلو الاخاء على بعد وفي كثب

ولا ثلاثة أعوام بهم سننا

Sweet in brotherly love, both far away and nearby;

not even three years with them had aged us [wording unclear].

قد كان من ذهنه يفتي مسائله

هذا لك الفرض فالزمه وذا سننا

From his own understanding he used to answer his questions:

“This is your obligation: adhere to it; and this is recommended practice.”

يقري من النص والأخبار يسندها

حسبي وقد ينشد الأشعار متقنا

He recites from the text, and reports whose chains he traces;

enough for me! And he would recite poetry with mastery.

كأن أخلاق عيسى فيه قد طبعت

لو هز جذعا جنى منه بحيث جنى

As though the character of Jesus had been imprinted in him;

had he shaken a trunk, he would have gathered its fruit in the same way.

لِلّه أقبل لا ذنباً ولا حذرا

من العذاب ولاعاراً ولا درنا

He went to God with neither sin nor fear

of punishment, neither disgrace nor stain.

فوق الذي فوقه الأحزان حملني

حتى نحفت عليه العزم والبدنا

He burdened me beyond anyone already laden with sorrows,

until I wasted both resolve and body in grief for him.

موت الصغار بأحشاء الكبار حكى

ناراً من الحزن تلهاب لها وسنا

The death of the young evokes, in the elders' entrails,

a fire of grief, with blazing heat and radiance.

حسنى الاله عسى دنيا وآخرة

تنسي أباه المعنى وجهه الحسنا

May God's goodness, in this world and the next,

make his anguished father forget his lovely face.

يا أمه اعتصمي باللَه واصطبري

يثيبك اللَه عنه العفو والمننا

O his mother, hold fast to God and be steadfast;

may God reward you for him with pardon and blessings.

لا تذكري منه خلقا لا ولا خُلقا

لكي تقري عيوناً بعد طُول عنا

Do not recall his form—no, nor his character—

so that your eyes may find rest after long suffering.

فلا محا اللَه هذا الحُزن عنك ولا

عني ولا بسوى ما كان أمعننا

So may God not erase this sorrow from you, nor

from me, nor by anything other than what has overwhelmed us.

فالحُزن للحزن ماح كالمداد إذا

جرى على كاغد فيه المداد خنا

For sorrow effaces sorrow, like ink when

it runs over already-inked paper and blots it out.

مولاي إن أبا الخرصين غادرني

من بعده دالها استخبر الدمنا

My Lord, Abu al-Khursayn has left me

distraught after him, asking the ruined dwellings for news.

لعل لطفك ينسيني خلائقه

ما عشت والعفو عني يطرد الغبنا

Perhaps Your gentleness will make me forget his traits

as long as I live, and pardon for me will dispel the loss.

وجنة الخلد يا مولاي تجعلها

لنا إذا ما التقينا عندكم وطنا

And the Garden of Eternity, my Lord—make it

our home when we meet in Your presence,

في نعمة وسرور دائم ورضى

نجاور المصطفى المبعوث سيدنا

in bliss, lasting joy, and contentment,

dwelling beside the Chosen Messenger, our master.

منك الصلاة عليه والسلام له

ما بانت الركب حجاجاً بشعب منى

From You, blessings upon him, and peace to him,

as long as caravans appear as pilgrims in Mina's ravine;

ثم الضجيعين ثم التابعين لهم

وتابعي التابعين القادة الأمنا

then upon the two who lie beside him, then those who follow them,

and the followers of the followers, the trustworthy leaders.