1. Oh, the grief of high offices for one departed,

    who once filled the eye and ear.

  2. Oh, the grief of glory, now stripped of the radiance

    of a full moon fallen from its loftiest summit.

  3. The noble virtues weep for Boutros,

    that valiant, noble, splendid man.

  4. I searched, when I did not find my eye

    equal to the task, for Virtue to weep with me.

  5. Then I was told: he had gone in his wake

    the day we buried him, and did not return.

  6. O you who made the people's tears flow as seas,

    come to their aid, O you who staunch tears!

  7. O you who dwell among the throngs of decay,

    you gave them company, O you who left the dwellings desolate.

  8. My eye today is Coptic in mourning you,

    relaying the sorrow of an anguished Muslim,

  9. who wanders, distraught with yearning and anguish,

    in the left side of my rib cage,

  10. and draws righteousness and the verses of fidelity

    from the Book whose wellspring is pure.

  11. O you who gave me so much of your love to drink,

    this is all my love—so drink deeply.

  12. O bearer of the great heart that

    did not break the covenant—rise and listen!

Sol 6.1