من غال كوكب يعرب ونزار

فهوى بمدرجة القضاء الجاري

Who struck down the star of Ya'rub and Nizar,

so that he fell along the course of ever-flowing fate?

قد كنت أدفع عنه لوأنّ الردى

مما يدافع بالقنا الخطارِ

I would indeed have defended him, had death

been something warded off with swaying spears,

وبكل مصقول الصفائح مقضب

ماضي الغرار مهند بتّارِ

and with every polished-bladed, keen sword,

sharp-edged, Indian-forged, cleaving clean.

لو أن تنجي المرء منه بسالة

لنجا بمهجته الهزبر الضاري

Had valor been able to save a man from it,

the ravening lion would have escaped with his life.

يجري القضا أبداً على عاداته

فيدقُّ كبش الجحفل الجرار

Fate runs forever in its accustomed ways,

and crushes the ram who leads the vast host.

يرمي فينتقد الكمي وإنما

يرمي بلا قوسٍ ولا أوتارِ

It shoots, singling out the armored warrior; yet

it shoots without a bow or bowstrings.

هل يأمن الإنسان من خطرٍ به

والمرء فيه وديعة الأخطارِ

Can man be safe from danger in this world,

when here he is a trust in the keeping of perils?

ما الناس إلا وارد أو صادرٌ

والحتف بين الورد والإصدارِ

People are only comers or goers,

and death lies between arrival and departure.

ترجو البقاء ولا بقاء وإنما

تبني على طرفي شفير هار

You hope to endure, yet nothing endures; you only

build on both edges of a crumbling bank.

أين الأولى شادوا القصور بجهدهم

لم يلبثوا إلا كلوث أزار

Where are those who raised palaces by their toil?

They stayed no longer than it takes to wrap a waistcloth.

فقدت عيون المجد فيه سوادها

فغدت عليه خواشع الأبصارِ

In losing him, glory's eyes have lost their pupils,

and their gazes grew downcast in mourning for him.

ما كنت أحسب قبل حفرة قبره

أنَّ القبور منازل الأقمار

Before his grave was dug, I never thought

that graves were dwelling places for moons.

فلحقَّ أن أدمي الأكفَّ لفقده

أسفاً وأصفق باليمين يساري

So it is right that I bloody my palms for his loss,

in grief, and strike my left hand with my right.

ما زلت أنشده التهاني برهة

واليوم عدن مراثياً أشعاري

For a while I kept reciting congratulations to him;

and today my poems have turned to elegies.

ما التأم جرح القلب حتى طوح الن

ناعي بذاك الكوكب السيار

The heart's wound had scarcely healed when the

death-announcer swept away that wandering star.

يا كوكباً ما كان أقصر عمره

وكذاك عمر كواكب الأسحار

O star—how brief his life was!

Such, too, is the life of stars before dawn.

جاورت أعدائي وجاور ربه

شتان بين جواره وجواري

I dwell beside my enemies; he dwells beside his Lord.

How different his dwelling is from mine!

كم نكبة لك يا زمان فظيعة

طرقت تشوب الصفو بالأكدارِ

How many a dreadful calamity of yours, O Time,

has struck by night, clouding serenity with sorrow!

عادت بقارعة يشبُّ ضرامها

بجوانح العليا شواظ النارِ

Again came a calamity whose blaze kindles

flames of fire within the breast of glory.

نفضت على وجه النهار ظلامها

فاسودَّ منها وجه كل نهارِ

It shook its darkness out upon the face of day,

so the face of every day grew black from it.

وجرى بمضمار العلوم مجلِّيا

فأنار مبهم ذلك المضمار

And he ran foremost on the racecourse of learning,

and lit what was obscure along that course.

سارت بأفق سما العلوم منيرة

آراؤه فكأنهنَّ سواري

Across the horizon of learning's sky traveled, shining,

his views, as though they were night-wandering stars.

ذو راحة ما انهلَّ صوب قطارها

إلا وطبَّق سائر الأقطار

He had a palm whose rain never poured down

without spreading over all the lands.

فإذا الغمام الجون ضنَّ بصوبه

وكفت تجود أكفه بنضار

And when the dark clouds grudged their rain,

his palms poured forth, lavishing pure gold.

فانشق أريج أبيه منه فإنما

هذا الشذا من ذلك النوار

So inhale his father's fragrance from him, for

this perfume comes only from that blossom.