1. Which eyes avoid the spears,
Or which hearts cut across the wastes?

2. And death hunts the whole of every tribe
It hunted the docile as a raider hunts the antelope.

3. It takes the malignant cobra from the nooks
And makes it shed its arrogant skin.

4. Men weep for this world though they cannot find
A cure for the ills of mortality.

5. And time is destroying; its vicissitudes
Raid with a roaring gale each day.

6. The sons of this world ride our mounts
And delude us with darkness and journeying by night.

7. We seem to seek in life a goal
While all of us leaves years behind.

8. Where are the pioneer pickaxes and shovels?
They left the homes and rendered the courts desolate.

9. Mingle your voice with every voice and listen—
Is there anyone in the dwellings who answers a call?

10. And smell the dust of the earth; you will know it is
The barren world which brings forth a new affliction each day.

11. How many a rider have I turned away from, and how many a corpse
Have I returned from with hands covered in his dust!

12. And so the generations before me passed away as
The vicissitudes of time swept them to destruction and perdition.

13. Shelters the world and brings honor to the living.
Fate looked at him like a ravening lion

14. That never casts down its eyes in shame.
And the caprice of fortune struck him a stunning blow

15. Like a piercing spear dripping with fresh blood.
What can we expect of the Pleiades when

16. A wind lashes the Bier star that gives no rain?
Fate wavered with Muhammad and Mudammis—

17. It was as though it found all men equal.
And the disaster that struck at Abilja of the Hashimites

18. Pierced the tombs and disturbed the successors.
And fate saw him who, had he wielded his sword one day,

19. Would have taken from fate what he wished.
A branch it had hoped to lop off, but which

20. Succumbed to the humiliated and obeyed the wretched.
O rider the earth covered in a night

21. When darkness almost became illumination!
When the two death announcers gave you your dues

22. Grief walked between hearts and shook entrails.
And half the day darkened; its sun quaked

23. Restlessly, and its light dragged darkness.
And after you every living being wept

24. So that neighing was turned into sobs.
A grave probed by the breeze with its dust

25. Beyond the tombs, locking up the gusts.
The virgin clouds meet it and their helpers

26. Meet the living and disperse condolences.
Joyous of flank, its ground laughs

27. As though jujubes lay among its furrows.
The best of men rightfully deserves a glorious grave;

28. He flooded men with voluntary gifts and donations.
If only the driving away of clouds obeyed me,

29. I would send down a torrent upon the vile man's tomb.
The rain clouds would forever drip on it

30. With rumbling that makes boulders gush forth tears.
And each cloud that paused by it, we would think

31. Wept over it affectionately and loyally.
And when the winds blew upon its dust

32. We would say the sky was sniffing the dust.
O you whom the awful mass visited—

33. It tore men apart and separated intimates!
The spears were honored to accompany you;

34. The generous flood covered the mourners.
The long bones of your arms were like

35. The stallions' banners raised by their prowess.
And after you we faced each smiling morn

36. As a day of sorrow and a gloomy night.
Your life was consecrated to the plundering horses as booty,

37. And today the tents are pitched with goat hair.
By the plunging of your sword the horsemen claimed

38. A battle whose renown shook the summits.
With gains you opened up, and situations

39. In which you set forth a convincing argument.
You mixed men's words with a speech

40. Flying at them like the swordsman's blood.
With a final assault by both bands disputing

41. The advance and the withdrawal by turns.
Weeping for you is an obligatory duty

42. While living is not wept for hypocritically.
By your father, an eye aims at every high place—

43. An eye taught after you to veil itself in sorrow.
So farewell, Commander of the Faithful, may you ever

44. Spur on the stallions and gain the heights.
If you are safe from disasters, you will be pleased,

45. And we would be pleased to ransom you.
And if death has its sway, it has come

46. Not returning the critics' blame but bringing praise.
Granting us this honorable, polished sword

47. And that stubborn, lofty glory.
You hastened to fight off the early tears gracefully,

48. While the eye comforts sadness and weeping.
So outrun your tears during misfortunes, and know

49. That fate does not gloat over enemies.
Ask about a sword whose blade you molded

50. And whose edges you stripped bare, fang and cutting edge.
And patience for a son who can replace him

51. Is preferable, but we mourn the fathers.
So time brought him back, and fate returned him—

52. With malice—and he did well once, and did ill.
He flung his years to the doves as though

53. He had flung off his cloak from his shoulders.
So let the days know that you never ceased

54. To rout disasters and sweep away sorrows,
Submitting to you the day they faced you,

55. Courageously paring their own misfortunes of solace.
And breasts heaved until they straightened

56. A rib over the slopes of its curves.
With flames suppressed, keeping his rage hidden

57. Like the cloudburst's withheld waters.
Ashen when your glance fell on him,

58. The hatred in his heart forgot its rancor.
As for your generosity, it was a fate which

59. Flooded hearts and inspired poets.
While I am one who praised you in encomiums

60. And prepared for the oppressor of you invectives.
I emptied my thoughts of all but love for you

61. As the girding man empties his vessel.
So farewell, while time continues to taunt me

62. With hopes reaching out toward your company.