Sol 6.1

  1. إليك فؤاداً لا تمل نوادبه

    ودونك دمعاً لا تغب سواكبه

    Here is a heart for you, whose mourners never tire;

    and here are tears for you, whose streams never cease.

  2. لعمر أبي لم يبق في القوس منزع

    غداة حدا الحادي وزمت ركائبه

    By my father's life, no draw was left in the bow

    on the morning the camel-driver chanted and his riding camels were bridled.

  3. ودار التصابي بأن للبين رسمها

    ونيل دجى الأيام مدت غياهبه

    And the abode of youthful dalliance, whose traces belong to parting,

    and the Nile of the days' darkness, whose gloomy depths have spread.

  4. هو الدهر لا يلوي لشاكٍ تقاذفت

    به غمرات أردفتها سحائبه

    Such is Time: it heeds no sufferer tossed about

    by engulfing surges, followed in turn by its clouds.

  5. فكم صال فتكاً غير مثنٍ عنانه

    لسلم وكم كرت لحرب كتائبه

    So how often it has charged to kill, never turning its reins

    toward peace; and how often its battalions have charged into war!

  6. أباد ذوي التيجان من عهد آدم

    وكسرى على ذحل قضى ومرازبه

    It has annihilated the wearers of crowns since Adam's time;

    and Khosrow perished amid vengeance, as did his satraps.

  7. ولا مثل طود غاله غائل الردى

    فمادت أعاليه ودكت جوانبه

    Yet none was like a mountain felled by death's ravager:

    its heights swayed, and its sides were crushed;

  8. وبحر بعيد المد عب عبابه

    وقد طبق الدنيا وجاشت غواربه

    and a sea of far-reaching tides, whose billows surged,

    which had covered the world, its wave-crests seething;

  9. وبدر علومٍ قد تغيب نوره

    فاظلم أفق الدين واغبر جانبه

    and a full moon of learning, whose light has vanished,

    so faith's horizon darkened and its realm grew ashen.

  10. فذاك على نجل جعفر من سمت

    على هامة الجوزاء فخراً مناقبه

    All this is for Ja'far's son, whose virtues rose

    in glory above the head of al-Jawza.

  11. قضى فقضى الدين الحنيفي بعده

    وسدت لعمري طرقه ومذاهبه

    He died, and the upright faith died after him,

    and, by my life, its paths and ways were barred.

  12. أقول على الدنيا العفا إن عصرنا

    لقد كثرت زلاته وغرائبه

    I say: ruin upon this world! For our age

    has indeed been full of missteps and strange turns.

  13. وها أنا مذ نيطت على تمائمي

    يحاربني يا ويله واحاربه

    And here I am: since my amulets were hung upon me,

    it wars against me—woe to it!—and I war against it.

  14. ومن حارب الأيام والدهر جاهداً

    فأجدر به أن ينثني وهو غالبه

    And whoever strives to fight the days and Time

    is most likely to retreat, with Time his conqueror.

  15. ذروني أسل ماء الجفون لتنطفي

    لواعج ما ضم الحشا وجوانبه

    Leave me to let the water of my eyelids flow, to extinguish

    the burning pangs of what my heart and its recesses hold.

  16. في النفس أمر ضاق عن وسع بعضه

    برغمي أكناف الحمى وسباسبه

    Within my soul lies a sorrow, even part of which exceeds

    against my will, the sanctuary's bounds and open plains.

  17. ويا طالما ضر الحليم اصطباره

    وجرعه الورد الذعاف مشاربه

    Ah, how often a forbearing man's endurance has harmed him,

    and his watering places have made him drink a deadly draught.

  18. لتبك المعالي ما استطاعت لماجد

    مضى فمضت من ذا الزمان أطايبه

    Let lofty virtues weep all they can for a noble man

    who passed away, so this age's finest things departed.

  19. وتبكي علوم الآمال مبدي عويصها

    إذا ما ظلام الجهل مدت غياهبه

    And the sciences of hope mourn the revealer of their intricacies,

    whenever ignorance's darkness spread its gloomy depths.

  20. فيا هاجراً حاشاه لا عن ملالةٍ

    وتراك وجد لا يبارح لاهبه

    O you who left—not out of weariness, far be it from you—

    and you who left behind a grief whose flame never departs:

  21. علمنا بأن العلم قوض والأسى

    تزايد والسلوان عزت مطالبه

    we have learned that learning has been dismantled, and sorrow

    has increased, while the means of consolation grew elusive.

  22. تعاظم هذا الخطب فالناس واجد

    أباعده فيه استوت وأقاربه

    This calamity has grown immense, and all people grieve;

    those far from him and his relatives are alike in this grief.

  23. أعزيكم يا آل جعفرٍ عن فتىً

    بعيد مناط الفخر جم مواهبه

    I console you, O house of Ja'far, for a young man

    whose glory had a lofty seat, whose gifts were abundant;

  24. أخو همم لا الدهر بالغ شأوها

    وصارم عزم لا تفل مضاربه

    a man of aspirations whose reach Time cannot match,

    and a keen sword of resolve whose edges are never blunted;

  25. وبحر علوم لا يمل حديثه

    جليس ولم يكتب سوى الخير كاتبه

    and an ocean of learning whose discourse never wearies

    a companion; his recorder wrote nothing but good.

  26. وثم معال لا أطيق عدادها

    ثناءاً وهل يقوى على الرمل حاسبه

    And there are lofty virtues I cannot enumerate

    in praise—could any reckoner ever count the sand?

  27. فصبراً بني العلياء فالصبر مغنم

    تبشر بالأجر الجميل عواقبه

    So be patient, sons of eminence: patience is a gain,

    its outcomes heralding a beautiful reward.

  28. فأنت جبال الحلم في كل أزمةٍ

    وطالعه وقف عليكم وغاربه

    For you are mountains of forbearance in every crisis,

    and its rising and setting belong to you alone.

  29. نجوم سماء كلما انقض كوكب

    بدا كوكب تأوي إليه كواكبه

    Stars in heaven: whenever a star falls,

    a star appears, and its stars seek refuge with it.

  30. ولا زال رضوان المهيمن واصلاً

    ثرى حله مولى الفخار وصاحبه

    And may the Guardian's favor never cease to reach

    the soil where glory's master and companion rests;

  31. ولا برح الرحمن يهدي له الحيا

    وكل امرئٍ يهدي له ما يناسبه

    and may the Most Merciful never cease to send him life-giving rain,

    and may every person offer him what befits him.