1. A bird startled you after nightfall
With grievous news of one with neck ropes severed

2. Alas for a dignified man!
I remain in the dark, my brilliance extinguished

3. As if when I learned of his murder, a tempest
Swept me from the pinnacle

4. I heave sigh after sigh
With heart aflame as if set alight

5. Followed by a teardrop wandering astray
Like the surplus flow from a bursting waterskin

6. As if when I stem the flow of my tears
And restrain them, I say to them, “Cease!”

7. Was I not absent in the land of Syria
Like one drowned, sunk without trace?

8. Yet I cease not to look in a book
Which makes the soul recoil, appalled at loss

9. It tells of the death of a generous brother
Far off in the depths, lively and unconfined

10. And an aged man whom adversaries avoid
As the hyena shuns the phoenix

11. A generous man who fills the drinking bowls
When the downpour of rain is scarce

12. Yet the greatest blow that struck me with anguish
Was a letter from a deep ravine

13. Telling of the death of a patient brother
Who fulfilled the promise of a truthful bestower

14. I shall show patience in the face of destiny
For every living soul shall taste death's bitterness

15. Thus is the world, neither lasting, while in it
Is one whose eye is moist

16. And the living have days that pass
Their end folding one after another

17. So think of them as nonexistent when their brief
Allotted span of life runs out

18. Thus shall they be resurrected, lone
For a day in which all rights will be restored

19. After the protector of your people, the open-handed one
My father, opener of the lofty assemblies

20. And after Ubaydah the Praised among them
And after Samaah of the ancient lute

21. And after the two sons of Mufaddal, your brothers
In that graceful time long past

22. You hoped to live at peace, carefree
Yet who can outrun the eager seekers of booty?

23. And this world in which you became
One neighbour ejected by another