سألتُ النَّاسَ، والموتى أجابوا:

مُحالٌ ما لمِنْ ذَهبوا إيابُ

I questioned the people; the dead replied:

Return is impossible for those who have gone.

كمَا نَبْلٍ رمَتْها القوسُ غَدْرًا

فما آبتْ، وما فاءَ المصابُ!

Like an arrow treacherously loosed by the bow,

it never came back, nor did its stricken victim!

نُعاقرُ في رِوَىً كأسَ المنايا

ويقتلُنا على ظمأٍ سَرابُ

We drink our fill from the cup of death,

yet a mirage kills us in our thirst.

أبي في قبضة الدنيا تداعى

نَحيلَ الجسمِ تُثقِلهُ الثِّيابُ

My father, in the grip of this world, gave way,

so slight of body that his clothes weighed him down.

وجاؤوا يَحْمِلونَ النَّعشَ فَرْدًا

تُشيِّعـهُ المـآذنُ والقِبـابُ

They came carrying the solitary bier,

escorted by the minarets and domes.

توارَى في الثَّرى وأدارَ ظَهْرًا

إلى دُنيا بها القُرْبُ اغترابُ

He vanished into the earth and turned his back

on a world where nearness itself is estrangement.

مَضى، لا شيءَ في يُسراهُ يُرجى

وفي يمناهُ يبتسمُ الكتابُ

He passed on: nothing in his left hand to hope for,

while in his right hand the Book smiled.

وقفتُ بقبرهِ أنْعي وأبكي

على وجهٍ تغمَّدهُ الترابُ

At his grave I stood, lamenting and weeping

over a face the earth had shrouded.

ولولا أنَّ دمْعًا فاضَ منِّي

لصاحَ القبرُ: أمْطَرني السَّحابُ

Had no tears overflowed from me,

the grave would have cried: “Let the clouds rain on me!”

فَقلتُ: الآنَ تعذِرُني وننْسى

بأنَّ الموتَ يكملهُ الغيابُ

So I said: “Now you will excuse me, and we shall forget

that absence is what completes death.”