1. Do you see the clouds when their evening first appears,
Shedding their water on a grave in Babylon?

2. O rider, rein in the camel's pace beside that tomb -
For to this dust belonged the cure of his deep pain.

3. It waters a passion in his heart that has revived,
Though its roots once softened and its winds turned kind.

4. He had bound me in kindness, and still I never left,
Nor lost the gentleness that was his way.

5. I kept faith with him, so where is his faith to me?
I was loyal to him, so where is his loyalty?

6. Did he forget my prayers, or were they lost to him
Amid the distance, and never reached his ears?

7. Alas, now his hearing and sight are under dust -
Veiled by its fog and darkness evermore.

8. By night, pebbles make his resting place uneven;
By day, its gloom is his companion.

9. His features are all changed, his signs effaced,
His lights obscured, their gleam gone dim.

10. Insensible though joy was his to claim;
Unheedful though in thought he took delight.

11. A face like lightning's flash, once bright then vanished;
A heart like smoldering ashes, quick to flame.

12. Time ruined him till if his foes had known,
Even his foes would now lament his fall.

13. That one whose joy was but the shade of might
Is now abandoned 'neath the naked sky.

14. Gone from his palace is his stately air,
And from his guard his clamor and parade.

15. The models of the tasks that were his pride
Were like the sheen those labors would display.

16. His lances were his envoys, swords his guards,
His steeds his boon companions, mounts of war.

17. Still he would ride out, girded by lances' points
And the unyielding mail those blades would breach.

18. Look to these mortal throngs and be admonished -
Do not be fooled by fleeting pomp or show.

19. See them like withered leaves when branches slough,
As their limbs fail and trunks grow cracked and dry.

20. What saves them from the strokes of death, when life
Blossoms but briefly, while decay spreads long?

21. Or how hope for relief when in their bodies
Only disease and suffering make their home?

22. Do not be shocked at their decline - natural,
Not odd, their fall, but strange, that they survive.

23. We're shocked he stayed well, vanished without ailment,
As fate decreed and sealed his overthrow.

24. They who tread the path their fathers walked
Will see their sons tread the same way again.

25. Marked men, they're singled out among the crowd -
Among their throngs, outcasts without compare.

26. Once he would eclipse the radiance of peers,
Dimming the brilliance other lords displayed.

27. Veiled in awe, a dread unknown, resplendent,
His glorious air suffused, outshone all else.

28. Then death called from behind the veil - he heard,
Responded: here I am - and met his end.

29. Swords and lances turned away, slaves and servants
Perished, of no more use to him or joy.

30. If one who loved him had, before death came,
Offered himself to ransom life from death,

31. No use - though dishonor was denied him, ever
Would his great works attest to majesty.

32. Humbled past familiarity, declining
After greatness fades, its height no more.

33. Bare the winds pound him and every gust
Obeys the first, flinging up pebbles and debris.

34. I passed by death's isthmus and asked of it:
Where are they, the friends its expanse concealed?

35. Like an untethered steed, its saddlebags
Sway and spill their contents back and forth.

36. I called out but my words were met with silence -
Just an echo mocking what I cried.

37. From a watcher's scornful look, thoughts drifting
Dark, a sufferer's groans, a hater's bile.

38. Prone, stretched out, their bodies listless, as if
Wine had drained their strength and left their limbs to fail,

39. Under dust with no remorse or pity, 'til
On judgment day entombed again in grave-pits.

40. The earth that gave them birth has consumed them -
Prey devoured by a beast's relentless jaws.

41. Greetings lively garden, softly exhaling!
Dawn diffusing gentle light in colors pure.

42. Lovely doe-eyed girls flutter past trailing
Tresses' scent - allure to catch their prey.

43. Their smooth skin gave you freshest morning dew,
The Pleiades delivered you night rain.

44. But to avoid the shameless ways of yore,
I'd shed their lifeblood on your tomb and mourn.

45. And every night beneath the sword preserve
Some rebel's neck whose cries persist prolong.

46. But I will leave their slaughtered bodies' stink
To my tears' flood, keening grief and song.

47. My sense of shame restrains me - if decorum
Let weeping eyes maintain their modest gaze!

48. When the year cycle brings your day anew,
I return, as the well return to health.

49. A home in my heart no cure can heal -
No remedy avails or brings relief.

50. Go - time does not stand still, and fate decreed
Its course for you and sealed your destiny.