نَجوتَ بالموتِ من وَجدي ومن شَجَني

وبَرَّحَت بي همومٌ ليسَ تَبرَحُني

You escaped my torment and grief through death,

Yet sorrows that do not leave me have been relieved by you.

يا مَن بمَصرعِه أمسيتُ أحسُدُه

فَكَفَّ عَن حَسَدي من كانَ يَحسُدُني

O you whose death has made me envious,

My envy ceased for those who envied me.

لطالَ يومُكَ حتَّى أنَّه زَمنٌ

ونحنُ نَحسبُه يَوماً من الزَّمَنِ

Your day was so long that it became an era,

While we reckoned it a day in time.

يومٌ عَلَت زَفَراتي يا عليُّ به

واستحسنت عَبراتي يا أبا الحَسَنِ

A day in which my sighs mounted, O Ali,

And my tears seemed graceful, O Father of Hasan.

والصَّبرُ أوَّلُ مَحزُونٍ عليكَ فهَل

شَيءٌ سِوَى الصَّبرِ يَثنِينِي عَن الحَزَنِ

Patience is the first resort of one mourning you, so is there

Anything besides patience that would dissuade me from grief?

يا أيُّها المَيتُ في الأكفانِ كَم كبدٍ

تركتَ صاحِبَها مَيتاً بلا كَفَنِ

O you lying dead in shrouds, how many a liver

Have you left dead without a shroud!

خَلَّفتَ في ناظِري شَخصاً يُخيِّلُ لي

بَعدَ الرَّدَى أنَّ ما قد كانَ لم يَكُنِ

You have left in my eyes an image that makes me imagine

After decay that what had been was not.

ما لِلمَنيَّةِ لَيسَت منكَ تُؤيِسُني

كأنَّها عادةٌ كانَت من الوَسَنِ

Death did not make me despair,

As if it were a habit amongst the bent.

قَضى عَلى القاضِيَينِ الدَّهرُ فيكَ بما

أجراهُ من جورِه الماضِي على سَنَنِ

Fate judged the two judges in you with what

It had ruled of its past tyranny in its ways.

وهي المنُونُ فإن تَسبِق فَلا عَجبٌ

والناسُ مُرتَهنٌ في أثرِ مُرتَهَنِ

And it is death. So if it comes first, no wonder!

People are pawned in the wake of the pawned.