1. Islam has lost a man without peer,

    And the sun of lofty virtues has fallen from its zenith.

  2. What a calamity! It has undone the knee-bands

    Once wound about the towering mountains.

  3. So great that every calamity dwindled beside it,

    However mighty; and grandeur's bright stars grew dim.

  4. Thus black hair turned white as days,

    And white faces turned black as nights.

  5. And the tongue of sacred law has been clothed in speechlessness,

    After being bold in speech.

  6. And in religion's heaven there has settled upon

    Its full moon a decline, after perfection.

  7. And legal cases are breathing their last,

    Following him, grieving for those virtues.

  8. Knowledge's noble camel is hobbled, while

    Ignorance has now been freed, after being tethered.

  9. Dead is he who was a refuge for the learned,

    And a beneficent sustainer—what a sustainer!

  10. Dead is he who left generosity's teats

    Dry, after flowing milk and fullness.

  11. His death has ulcerated the eyelids of greatness,

    And after him the carpets of bounty were rolled up.

  12. O Abu al-Fadl, your bounty refused to

    Leave those seeking favor in the worst plight.

  13. Thus, for the sons of hope after you, no longer

    Do their camels complain of bitter exhaustion.

  14. After you, O son of al-Murtada, they forbade

    Forever the strapping of camel-litters and saddles.

  15. So the splendid robes of

    Learning, after you, are worn-out, tattered rags.

  16. The fates have left a scholar's mantle bereft of you,

    Once a crown adorned with learning's pearls.

  17. Your house has been clothed in desolation—how often

    Warm companionship dwelt there, adorned with beauty!

  18. How many a white hand of kindness you extended,

    With a right hand blessed with fortune, and a left!

  19. You were a sea of generosity whenever a plea arrived;

    You were a sage of learning on every question.

  20. How many a jurist you revived with gifts,

    After you had felled his mouth in debate.

  21. And though Kamal al-Din has died,

    After power and honor in unbroken succession,

  22. He has indeed left a memory fragrant as

    Musk, whose scent the north wind carries.

  23. You who gloat over death, wait:

    For death is a cup passed by a roving cupbearer.

  24. None escapes its assault, even one who assails

    With armies filling the earth, and wealth.

  25. I swear: if valor could have warded death from him,

    The white blades would have returned reddened,

  26. And lions of Shara would have stretched out beneath them,

    With horses beneath them, like she-ghouls.

  27. They see no glory in raiding save

    What resolve builds with the tips of long spears.

  28. And men would have plunged into the depths of war,

    Who drink death like clear, sweet water.

  29. And with willing souls they would have ransomed him:

    Fierce lions and ladies of curtained chambers,

  30. From cousins and contemporaries

    Bound by loyalty, and slaves and clients.

  31. Those who saw him witnessed in him what was recounted

    Before him by narrators in bygone books.

  32. What a life! How often it strung

    Necklaces upon the necks of dictated lessons!

  33. Before him, we never saw anyone whose handwriting

    Had white pearls gleaming amid its black ink.

  34. For as a scribe he is as lofty as the sun,

    And Ali ibn Hilal is like the crescent.

  35. A prose master: if he wished to compose, he struck

    Every master of artful phrasing with disarray.

  36. The sea is wounded when he grows angry,

    By words delightful as lawful magic.

  37. Steadfast of heart when there seethe, amid

    Rage in the assembly, the livers of men.

  38. Composed in a state that unsettles

    Every lofty nose of noble lineage.

  39. O Diya al-Din, patience! Every living being

    Is destined to perish and pass away, except my Lord.

  40. Where are Tasm and Jadis, and those

    Who filled the world with wealth and households?

  41. And the prophets, and those who followed them—

    All of them came to this same end.

  42. Be as Kamal al-Din was in

    His patience when heavy calamities struck:

  43. Steadfast in good and ill alike,

    Scorning the reckless in either state.

  44. How much nobility rests in his grave,

    And qualities that outnumbered the grains of sand!

  45. May God's mercy be upon him whenever

    A mother of ostrich chicks is startled in a trackless waste.

  46. This age is surely treacherous; it has never ceased

    To announce weaning after suckling.

  47. It gnashes its fang at us in reproach,

    At every moment, in the forbidden and the lawful.

  48. O Diya al-Din, you are lords

    With whom poetry's price has always been high.

  49. Whoever seeks your equal in your age

    Has indeed returned with falsehood and impossibility.

  50. How many a ruined thing you restored with gifts,

    And with wisdom you effaced the paths of error.

  51. For the house of al-Shahrazuri has a station

    Beneath which al-Jawza lies, itself far beyond reach.

  52. Barmakid-like at every request,

    Farisi-like in every discourse.

  53. Among them is every eloquent orator,

    And every jurist, a formidable advocate in debate.

  54. Their pens have attained what was attained

    By heroes with spears on the day of combat.

  55. If their envier feels any joy,

    He will yet be struck by them with madness.

  56. So may Kamal al-Din's grave be watered at

    Every hour by a generous downpour from the cloud-spouts.

Sol 6.1