1. Reproach does not alleviate time’s affliction,
Nor does plaint, like flasks, avail ships.

2. After the loss, not one region was pleased
With sculpture—but existence itself was tested.

3. Had the days shown gentleness to Ibn Miqbil’s flask,
It would not have chosen a palm to bandage its arts.

4. This spring was exalted only by a humiliation
That leaves it in the eye’s comfort, exploited.

5. Finery did not clothe the feathers with honor,
And how often glory was a garment of death for its wearer.

6. The breeze’s touch, within its folds,
Was lighter than the taut bowstring when it voiced complaint.

7. To ignorant West there is an unruly camel
That is guarded for the abasement it contains from the perceptive one.

8. As for him—and well-being is his lot—
Calamities pass him by, as do afflictions.

9. Would that a generous man revive people with his goodness
And live among us the life of Thahlān or Ḥaḍn.

10. But he passes like the shadow of a cloud,
While the wretched one, his evil ever untrustworthy, remains.

11. The young man desires longevity, but his longevity
Bequeaths the loved ones’ and body’s exhaustion.

12. What delight is there in a life patched up
That is joined with death in marriage?

13. I see every living being carrying
The sentence of death—oh, what he bears and wraps himself within!

14. If the stray arrow is overturned, then so is its direction,
And who in it had protected his dearest from piercing?

15. How wondrous that one enjoys an existence
poisoning his being with the waters of death as if

16. Our eyes had slept in the face of such peril,
Though fending off wildcats from lambs were easier,

17. And storing vipers’ venom in vipers’ dens,
Elevating a flock of sparrows above the bowls’ peaks—

18. I have not seen anything truer than death,
And all, by God, are mortgaged to mortality.

19. O brothers—and the Gathering is a near meeting with you—
Peace precedes you, while we follow prescriptions.

20. O brothers, there remains only a greeting
I will use to visit those settlements and abodes.

21. O brothers, can you hear my greetings to you
While, below you, what hides and reveals remains?

22. So oh my heart, what did you repay the son of Mālik with?
And oh my lesson, what did you study, Abū l-Ḥasan?

23. Two boon friends in Damascus, succeeding
Each other with no respite from sadness for me.

24. I sought pretext in this wound, this chronic suffering,
And fooled this heart away from the blessings of graceful Yemen.

25. So he singled me out with the burden—and profound is the burden—
And surrendered me to Time—that which possesses power.

26. Had I lost the pleasure of those I lost,
It would have eased their succession's effect on people of delusions.

27. Who consoles me in my consoler that falters?
And who mediates for me in my mediator I cannot find?

28. He was the deliverance of people in every adversity,
And the joy of the loyalist, the compassion of the sympathizer.

29. So many praiseworthy deeds have they accomplished,
So many perduring favors bestowed and gifts granted!

30. How many a severe anxiety they have relieved,
How many an exceedingly heavy burden they have undertaken,

31. If they sensed an emptiness, the two were gentle with it
However its complaining voice desired—with rest or structure.

32. Abū l-Ḥasan, rest in the Gardens, made blissful
In return for the fair efforts you offered forth.

33. My heart leaps in fright but, upon seeing
Your place in the Abode of Richness and Pleasure, is calmed.

34. You used to frequent the appointed places when
The Merciful granted you His Paradise for a home.

35. A concern of mine has remained with exile—a breach occurred
And for all its urging toward weakness, it clung on.

36. It was pleased with none save the earth of your exile
That you chose for the saints despite the discord:

37. As the Messenger himself was saddened for Saʿd
And shrouded him in the Noblest Enclosure.

38. Even if ʿAbdullah were given a choice among plots,
He would opt for Qutham, nor feel deprived.

39. For you are summoned from every land:
“Come to us! Below you remain barriers and forms of madness!”

40. He Who has pleased you among those servants you pleased
And for whom you struggled in duties and rites will please you.

41. And for those whose pact with you remained
There will always be, whenever panic seizes them, tranquility.

42. They will be protected as two orphans—reinforced
With a wall raised after its edifice was ruined and enfeebled.

43. And that is no righteousness in the wall and its height
But for a treasure buried underneath that was stored away!

44. Abū Ḥasan, the distance, after it appeared,
Is vast, and amounts not to the hidden future.

45. The easiest of my agonies upon your loss
Is that longing for you will endure as long as time remains.

46. May God—and those who serve Him with both hands—water a
Blessed soil that gathered you, effusive in its love!

47. Unceasing dew perpetually begins there,
Where if the wind races it, pillars form to brace it.

48. You remain in a garden, spirit, mercy,
And forgiveness, bundled within that profusion.