1. My friend, look at me, for soon
A meeting of two lovers in the grave, two lovers

2. For thirty years you did no wrong to me
Rather you were forgiving of my sins

3. Affection has traversed the course of youth and still
Remains as it was first, despite the onslaught of old age

4. In him is the prime of a youth in his twenties
And in him is the wisdom of a man in his sixties

5. Is it not strange today to see you silent
With all around you, O Sarkis, lamenting

6. You whose voice used to rise high
Taking hearts and minds away

7. You who pushed back the chest of the unjust till felling him
With the edge of a shepherd’s crook, not the edge of a rod

8. And who taught us the freedom of speech without
The torment of souls who have tasted and seen affliction

9. My friend, you have saddened me, by Allah you have deafened me
To the measured, eloquent logic of expression

10. You embarked anew, refined
And left me an inheritance for every man of letters

11. Thus go the paths of genius
Appearing near though far away

12. And in wearying trying to grasp their stature
If the soul’s nature is not prepared