1. The spring of verse and chanting ran dry

    On Fakhri's day, though it had once been easy to command.

  2. And a spring of tears took its place,

    Flowing abundantly with anguish in my heart.

  3. People knew that I paid no heed

    To calamities and the assaults of adversity.

  4. O tears, you had been in prison,

    Never emerging from it—why do you appear today?

  5. Surely this does not befit someone like me;

    What excuse have I before the company of critics?

  6. My tears said—and tears have a language

    That awakens the soul to guidance and right conduct—

  7. Do not blame me when I break free from captivity,

    Stirring souls in every gathering.

  8. Indeed, my love for three years

    After Fakhri is indeed a kind of obstinacy.

  9. You will find me your consolation, so let me be;

    Do not blame me for mourning the noble, generous man.

  10. In vain we hope for a youth like al-Muhaysh,

    Who devoted his life to his country's cause.

  11. Go on, O tears, for what you said is the truth;

    And, free as you are, flow ever more abundantly.

  12. Rise and immortalize his memory today, O tears,

    For my poetry falls short of my intent.

  13. In prosody I found no sea

    For one whose learning resembles the Pacific Ocean.

  14. The ship of imagination was at a loss when to sail

    Amid waves in the shape of towering mountains.

  15. And meanings—how far meanings are from me!

    After Fakhri, they did not answer my call.

  16. O my tears, you must water his earth,

    And leave me to wander distraught through every valley.

  17. Pay no heed to what some people say:

    Their heart is hewn from the very core of lifeless matter.

  18. Their concern in life is a life of ease,

    Even if the outcome is shackles.

  19. Everyone who dies in a noble struggle

    Is alive in my faith and conviction.

  20. And the station of immortality, O son of al-Muhayshi,

    You have attained today, after a long struggle.

  21. May the rain shower you—no, rather my tears,

    For they are worthier than the downpour of Dhu Niqad.

  22. If you vanish into the earth, your memory remains

    In the hearts of children and grandchildren.

Sol 6.1