1. Come, greet him standing here, his noble ways now gone.

    He has forsaken the world, though still joined to it.

  2. He stayed, though death's journey had hastened him away,

    So he remained high on the tree-trunk, yet journeyed away.

  3. Abu al-Fadl, calamities have slain you; nor could

    A man of bounty escape their deadly blows.

  4. So you were stripped of your shirt, though so often

    You bore sword-belts over shirts of iron.

  5. And around you are young men of Bakr ibn Wa'il:

    Whenever men of merit were counted, they were foremost.

  6. Time's reversals struck them, but they only

    Struck the hump and withers of greatness.

  7. As though they were a caravan bewildered in the night,

    And so had severed the cords of swift travel.

  8. The noonday heat met them with a tenderness

    That made the hours of noon seem like late afternoons.

  9. And out of its due season, the rain became

    Drizzle upon those bodies, and a downpour.

  10. As though the sky had burst into tears at their calamity,

    And could not hold back its streaming tears over it.

Sol 6.1