1. My dear uncle, you left this world
And left us in it to draw our path

2. We hoped to see you even from afar
Your home was far from us yet you could see us

3. Until God had written his decree
You left us and meeting became impossible

4. I have no more hope of meeting a departed one
We lived our childhood by him and our youth

5. Seventy years in life and seven
Became your age to us a symbol

6. Did I lose you or did you lose yourself?
No difference since the separation happened

7. Did you finish your life or did it finish you?
Both are equal now that you are gone

8. Years pass by us, some fold
into others, and man folds his fold

9. My dear uncle, you took a journey like a knight
Who rode the difficulties of life on a steed

10. Prayer times knew you always first to come
The call to prayer - you recite the Quran

11. And fasting month saw you loving its fast
And up at night chanting prayers till dawn

12. Time passed as if just a moment
Its seconds gathered lifetimes for us

13. As if it was a fleeting dream
When we clung to it, it deserted us

14. My grandfather and grandmother preceded you
In a precedent that stirred our yearning and sorrow

15. And my mother who lived selflessly for us
With genuine caring went ahead of you

16. She left this world with a beat of our hearts
With her, leaving her kindness and affection

17. I still remember her hand turning
To a fruitful field feeding us

18. And her eyelids shading us like a cloud
When the winds of worries overcame us

19. They left this world and our tears became
A language depicting our loss and grief

20. And now you left just as they did before
As if the past is repeating itself again

21. Do spirits meet - that knowledge is His
Our Creator's, The Benevolent's domain

22. My dear uncle, the grief of departure overwhelms
My words, overpowers the rhythms

23. And I almost feel that every memory
Rekindles the fires of yearning

24. What can I recall of a life now just
Memories, and memories stir sorrow

25. Shall I recall the old mudbrick house
Built by family who erected its structure?

26. Shall I remember the ponds and our home's
Jasmine, marjoram, and basil?

27. Shall I recall the high mountain and around it
Trees stretching branches like strings?

28. Or the fertile valley with its almond
And fig and olive and pomegranate?

29. Or the small pond and its dam
And the west I'd ascend filled and overflowing?

30. Or the melodies of the waterwheels
Echoing the valley calling to us?

31. Racing as they irrigate the fields
Leaving their deep imprint behind

32. Those water wheels that drain the pond’s water
To revive the trees till their branches dance

33. Shall I recall the heavy rains then
The floods afterwards and remember?

34. What shall I recall, O dear one who
Left the path and quit the arena?

35. She said: I see you're sad; I said: Yes
Parting stokes the fires of grief

36. She said: Where's your patience? I said: With me
I'm crossing the storms with my patience

37. Patience in the first strike when fate descends
Calms the soul and soothes its turmoil

38. Accepting what God decrees is noble
Gaining kindness through such grace

39. In the language of sorrow remains a place where
We can express our complaints

40. Some sorrow and tears are fine
Without blazing volcanoes of grief

41. Don't ask, O you who asked, for I have
In all I wrote proof and reason

42. An uncle by shariah is like a father
So the Prophet had guided and taught us

43. O heart, lessen your sorrows and return
To God, making His remembrance tranquility

44. Don't let grief always dominate
Giving your days its colors

45. When the grieving magnify their grief
They see all people as grieving

46. My dear uncle, the mouth of this poem still
Stammers, while its heart bewildered

47. It fell short - and my Lord - in depicting
My pain, how can it show ember and smoke?!

48. But I quenched it with my patience
And made obeying my Creator my scale

49. I released a flock of prayers ascending
To the sky, pleading with The Merciful

50. O Lord, this uncle is now alone
So grant him company and safety

51. And open for him your doors of mercy
That bring him pardon and forgiveness

52. Settle him, O Lord, and every monotheist
Who walked the straight path, in Paradise