يَقولونَ لي لَو كانَ بِالرَملِ لَم يَمُت

نُشَيبَةُ وَالطُرّاقُ يَكذِبُ قيلُها

They say to me, had he been with the sand, he would not have died

Gray hair and baldness belie what is said

وَلَو أَنَّني اِستَودَعتُهُ الشَمسَ لَاِرتَقَت

إِلَيهِ المَنايا عَينُها وَرَسولُها

And had I entrusted him to the sun, death would have risen

To it, its eye and its messenger

وَكُنتُ كَعَظمِ العاجِماتِ اِكتَنَفنَهُ

بِأَطرافِهِ حَتّى اِستَدَقَّ نُحولُها

And I would have been like the bones of foreigners that surrounded him

With its edges until its leanness narrowed

عَلى حينَ ساواهُ الشَبابُ وَقارَبَت

خُطايَ وَخِلتُ الأَرضَ وَعثاً سُهولُها

When youth equalized him and the earth's expanse neared

My sins, and the plain was strewn with litter

حَدَرناهُ بِالأَثوابِ في قَعرِ هُوَّةٍ

شَديدٍ عَلى ما ضَمَّ في اللَحدِ جولُها

We lowered him in clothes to the bottom of a deep abyss

Stronger than what the grave gathered in its circumference