1. If you grieve for his departure
Apportion your time in lament or moral

2. And let your yearning be for his remembrance
Count him, for as long as you live, absent

3. Or faultfinding, if he doesn’t visit us
Or asleep, overwhelmed by slumber

4. On a pillow his eyes have not closed upon
Or an exceptional utterance whose script has turned

5. And its meaning has resided in our breasts
Or a visitor, the north wind stinging with its cold

6. And the earth clothed in the chill of its breeze
Or a planet, the feet gliding in its light

7. It passed and its beauty reached its destination
So when did he distance himself though souls love him

8. And when was he absent though hearts see him
I didn’t know except after your day in the soil

9. That time and its people are all similar
For the holiday is no master over another

10. And the servant, his Master does not elude him
O One who has judged all fairly and set right

11. The world of all and their faith, their world
And his effects have been eternalized and bounded

12. To the chagrin of whoever opposed him
Damascus is your Damascus, in your hands its reigns

13. And whoever claimed otherwise, don’t heed his claim
Your torment in life was honored

14. And God honors His servant through his torment
Until you were cleansed of sins like a polished

15. Sword that revealed its sheen and polish
There did death gently take you

16. Removing the eminent from the eminent his body
With a lucid mind and escorted heart

17. The hand of destiny does not provoke its prohibitions
The light of your witnessing to Divine Oneness seen

18. Between his tongue and soul, its radiance visible
And in his face a mark more brilliant than a bridled

19. However much appeared, its symbol unmistakable
And it was as if he were tranquility in life

20. If not for a stirring in the dew enveloping him
His eyes had lowered in contemplation

21. And his lips narrowed in a smile
As if he saw the poor in distress

22. So his hands clung atop his heart
Do you see him having entrusted concerns to fate?

23. The extent of the generous is the reach of his hand
And indeed you passed a scene that choked

24. The expanse of space, astonishing all who saw
They expressed God’s pleasure with you in their praise

25. For praise is a sign of His satisfaction
All had their tears precede you

26. And ecstasy commands it though it doesn’t prohibit it
What has preoccupied hearts therewith

27. That one does not hope for it and that does not fear it
It is nothing but an immaculate branch

28. That shaded all and sheltered them
I have for you, while you are glory incarnate

29. A sorrow that lowers, fulfilling its depths
And your persona settles in the conscience loftily

30. Proud, bringing righteousness though remote
With qualities that reject baseness and all

31. That upholds good and does not refuse it
Today has passed every one I loved

32. And the self conveys to me the one it elegized
What does the tomb in Damascus hope for

33. When you had been its overseer and neighbor
It grows accustomed to your grave in sorrow for what

34. Had made it laugh, the one who made it weep
O soil, the minister has made his burial ground you

35. Allah has watered you, rather sent prayers upon you
And spreading through you and from you a radiant mention

36. Fragrant as musk to the mouths