1. The morning breeze of spring caressed you,
And the drizzle of laden clouds watered you.

2. Life bid you farewell with great affection,
With neither scarcity nor dew being stingy.

3. Before your death, I would chide those who wept.
But today, I wonder at those who smile.

4. I hold back my tears lest they stain my cheeks.
Today I know what I did not know before.

5. After you, I told my tears: Stop flowing
Out of grief, even if my tears are made of blood.

6. The son of Musa and eternal life
Gave leadership with palms that were unscarred.

7. He left his clothes unstained,
And his chaste being unmarred.

8. The whiteness of his honor and praise protected him,
Like clasped hands over unblemished coins.

9. He was needless of this world though he mourned it,
For the wealthy are but firewood for the destitute.

10. He filled time with tragedies and wounds,
Roving amongst men, both happy and miserable.

11. He made the most of his days in their phases,
Until he reached the furthest extent of service.

12. Today I sheathed the polished sword in the earth,
And buried the peak of great mountains.

13. The maidens of nobility now walk barefoot,
Mutilated after him or completely lame.

14. Smiling through his generosity when asked to give,
He rained dew withoutgathering clouds.

15. Slender, yet revealing the brilliance of nobility,
A face like the reddened cheek, unblemished.

16. He throws away treasures casually,
As if his conscience were frozen, untouched by love.

17. The Giver of Bounties by nature,
Never regrets what He gives with His two hands.

18. They came with the red blossoms of spring,
Red as if they were the veins of oleander.

19. Half-asleep amidst branches and vineyards,
Between severed cane and crumbling pillars.

20. With his hands he turns back the banners of cane,
Squeezing blood from the thick of events.

21. And he says to his noble soul: Greet
The day of meeting, but do not say: I submit!

22. The doves called him, so their covenant with him
Was sacrificing pleasures and bearing difficulties.

23. Does the generous man bequeath after death
Anything but the best of honor and nobility?

24. The dew refuses to stop raining on the youth,
And the inheritance of the generous is scarce.

25. Your virtues filled the lands and dug through
The earth - the expert casts them into the depths.

26. So your glory is like lightning in the scales,
Dazzling to the eyes and a wrap in black velvet.

27. You fed the stampeding horses to the point of obesity,
Hitting with them those who did not sin.

28. Like a flock startled by the shrieking of a bowman,
It went circling with the rear ahead.

29. Today is painful to the eyes with its darkness,
Wherein the youth cannot find his mouth.

30. Nothing remains but some sunlight behind his veil,
Like the slit of a masked horseman’s visor.

31. One who plunged into blood till the dew covered him,
Trickling on the shattered cane.

32. Or one whose skin was calloused by the cane’s thorns,
Baring his teeth at every widening of the mouth.

33. Or one who slipped the reins, saved by it,
A steer that leaves no room for the bridle.

34. The tall tales shrink from him, and he avoids
The bitterness of talk each and every day.

35. And the description of a brave man’s stab
Frightens him, or a blow from a blunt sword.

36. Until he thinks the dawn is a drawn sword
That fell along with disaster’s tidings.

37. A resistant one whom the cold of speech pierced
Among supported allies and invested troops.

38. The pretentious were humbled and surrendered
To the clanging of the seasoned Phoenician sword.

39. Reason necessarily accepts his opinion
When disasters strike, not according to whim.

40. He carried the greatest deeds and sacrifices, striding
And walked the straightest path, most direct,

41. Until the puller threw his rope,
And the bridle bit reached the nose and brow.

42. He threw down the burdens, and left no one after him
To carry the glorious in the gatherings.

43. As if it were untying the tightly knit, his breath failed,
Like the panting of foxes on the leading strap.

44. Kings slept in the wisdom his insightful plan encompassed,
Splitting the minds of dreamers.

45. Disasters shake off him as if they are
Falling dust beneath the seal’s flourishing inscription.

46. When the youths sat heavily due to their status,
They said to this tall wood: Step forward!

47. My life! They threw worries into the Euphrates with disdain,
And they stoned misfortunes with pelting.

48. As if they struck the cane with Utaybah
And met the foe with Rabiah bin Mudarib.

49. Delicate branches whose youths
Change the nature of lethal poison.

50. Ninety-seven withered because of you,
Until they passed away, while you remained unblemished.

51. Afterwards, they did not match your status,
Once they lost hope of crossing the impassable path.

52. Save for some remnant dust that remained
As stings and motes for an eye or mouth.

53. If they follow your tracks seeking nobility,
Then the wolf makes honey on the road of the assassin!

54. Is there a father like my father for a deep,
Painful wound, a mighty misfortune that cannot be blamed?

55. Tragedies have left us bereaved,
With the passion of the father and the intimacy of the intimate.

56. With slackness for those gone,
And momentum for the forerunners.

57. The pure son of two pure ones, and who can be
For a father a cause of pride up to the pillar of prophethood?

58. From a folk who made virtues their food,
And drank from ancient, mighty honor.

59. Whether charging or repelling, barren or fruitful,
Giving or preventing or forcing.

60. They overlooked their concerns for erected glory,
And took lightly the attainer, however strong.

61. Aloes whose branches intertwined
Into confirmed glory for its counterpart.

62. Birth after birth they pass down generosity,
Among fathers of generosity and sons.

63. I said to the enviers when they waged war,
Burning hearts with yearning and devising evil:

64. Do not envy those who repeatedly ascend to the heights
And defeat all on the lofty, stacked saddlebags.

65. Those who criticize every grandfather are despicable,
As are those who find fault with every ancestor.

66. You take spoils when there is booty,
While they take the choicest part of the plunder.

67. You scent from their perfumes what your noses dislike,
While they assemble a smell other than bitter aloe.

68. They help each other to a towering, ancient nobility
And generosity - established, well-rooted.

69. Increasing while you resort to begging,
Though the ‘Mother of Disgrace’ is not accustomed to you.

70. So cling to the wonder of humiliation, and leave off
Raising your eyes to the greatest edifice.

71. Those are lions - who then can drag its prey,
Or pass through its dreadful forest?

72. Their graves are positioned at the edges of the lands,
Like starry dots under a dark, gloomy night.

73. It is enough pride for you that their graves are scattered
For a helper or the accused.

74. They considered them mountains of elevation, though they lie
Corpses of greater glory, piled up.

75. They placed over them cenotaphs and headstones -
Weights pulled down by thunder, like Al-Muzdalifah.

76. Tears, pouring down, watered their soil,
So they had no need for cloud drops or rainwater.

77. A grave was dug in Babylon whose stones
Were set, layer upon layer, to hold back pouring dew.

78. Containing generosity in the folds of its covering,
And glory in its luminous niche.

79. Do not reckon it a grave covered by a tomb,
For it is the cave of one of the stars.

80. You exposed my back to the foe, though it fears
The likes of a massive, intermingled army.

81. And you unveiled to Time the disgrace of my murder,
So its arrows turned back to me after you.

82. You used to stand between me and its arrows,
But today, wearing armor cannot stop an archer.

83. Will you hear from Time my darknesses
Regarding what it reaped? And to Time I complain!

84. Say to misfortunes: I will not pardon you a stumble
That makes me bow to my circumstances - surrender!

85. I will not overlook the offender when it transgresses,
And if the striking one enables you, then be resolute!

86. For the deluded is one who forgoes retaliation for harm
And remains observing, seeking an excuse for the sinner.

87. Intricately woven like armor, its links serried,
A craft eloquently made in an inarticulate age.

88. I trained it for a time seeking its match,
And presented it to you, O noble husband.

89. I came as your bride though not degraded,
A home of dishonor while you are the eye of the venerated.