1. Nurture your body that it may sleep soundly,
Spare your soul exhaustion lest it perish frailly,

2. Your own soul has tired seeking heights and quests,
Till it wished the path of parting finally,

3. O traveller, weep for it copiously,
On pulpits, platforms and stony hills,

4. Pens will mourn its loss, their scratching
Wails of sorrow and pitiful keenings,

5. Recalling hands which trilled and warbled joyfully,
Cages they were, and ringing was their tinkling,

6. Inked with blood when aspiring was forbidden
And seeking freedom met a fatal ending,

7. Hands your eloquent tongue as swordsman mimicking,
Who to cold steel was as equal unflinching,

8. Over pulpits undimmed its flare subsisting
Though fading slowly into twilight dimming,

9. Needing from you an impassioned orator,
To recite a fine threnody, your praises singing,

10. One like you we scarcely can be finding,
To see in your stead, no fitting replacing,

11. Tell your exploits in verse no limit binding,
Eloquence abbreviates, your glory prolonging,

12. If short your lifespan in our eyes esteeming,
Yet the little of the likes of you — no brief remaining,

13. You filled our hearing with papers and odes,
Missives and chapters, remarkably wide-reaching,

14. From East to West unfettered and unimpeded,
Never tiring of traveling and wayfaring,

15. With you a piercing vigor and determination,
Like the polished sword, sharp past declaring,

16. And creativity, leadership and intuition,
Keen and probing all that is uncertain,

17. May Allah not distance you from bygone days,
Their hearts no returning or backsliding craving,

18. If you left Beirut in isolation stark,
Then you left Paris in woeful convulsing,

19. On Nile's bank your exploits still hold their spark,
Poured forth till the shores overflowed with pulsing,

20. You are the writer, so aptly named, proof undoubting,
A title we see affirmed, all certainty clinching,

21. For you here a memory blows, scent dispersing,
In hearts pouring out torrents of tears gushing,

22. Recalling your faded youth we mourn its withering,
As blooms and branches remember their fading,

23. Remembering your gentle soul that was soothing,
We recall the soft breeze at dusk gently rustling,

24. Remembering your conversation, night beguiling,
Stealing hearts and minds in its sweet bewitching,

25. Remembering your beauties that went exiled,
We recall the roses their setting and finishing,

26. Upon your grave from the All-Merciful, mercy raining,
Morning and night your tombstone bathing and nourishing.