Sol 5.6

  1. An ailing man calls to you while you are far away.

    Until yesterday, you would visit him and renew

  2. the sick man's dearest consolation; into him would enter

    its breaths of healing and encouragement.

  3. O father of chivalry, truly your affliction is hers;

    or did you not leave her when you became a martyr?

  4. You healed bodies; after your departure, souls remain

    that neither wailing nor sighing can heal.

  5. A community has been bereft of you; its devoted lover stands bewildered:

    how can he console it when you are the one it has lost?

  6. In your time it was a family you set upright;

    it grew, with no crookedness in its branches.

  7. Jordan, too, wept for you—its most judicious administrator—

    for its advancement: whenever more was asked, he gave more.

  8. A shepherd who chose a course and advanced upon it,

    his example among leaders peerless;

  9. a great scholar, deeply learned while still young,

    whose constant habit was healing and sound guidance.

  10. In his books the Arabs have a history by which

    the future grows clear, while no long-familiar past disappears.

  11. The monuments of goodness mourn their builder, who

    withheld from them none of his own endeavor,

  12. nor from tending them; throughout his days,

    founding and construction never ceased.

  13. Today, if no descendants of his weep for him,

    many among those he reared are there to mourn him.

  14. How many weak young people he nurtured and protected,

    preparing them as a new generation for the land.

  15. Prudence, culture, and piety mourn

    one who lived without blame or disparagement.

  16. Far be it that his virtues be forgotten—virtues

    whose aloeswood fragrance wafted from them in every gathering.

  17. Where now is friendship free of dissimulation,

    and generosity at the moment generosity does most good?

  18. The cultivated manners of a scholar who never broke his pledge

    and never strayed from the straight, measured path.

  19. Those virtues brought him to an exalted station,

    while through them his way was eased.

  20. Abdullah drew him near to himself, and so he dwelt

    in favor at his court, his star auspicious.

  21. Is there anyone like Abdullah among men of understanding—

    a clear-sighted king, judicious in affairs?

  22. With his sword and his counsel he attained the summits

    of glory, where no rival rises to his height.

  23. By his valor in war he proved himself

    the brave, stout-hearted champion of the struggle.

  24. How great a debt is owed to him and to his House by

    their homelands—and those who know bear witness.

  25. Even had he not himself attained the name of glory,

    illustrious fathers and forefathers would have sufficed him.

  26. O you who keep Boulos's memory alive,

    such praise of one praiseworthy is itself praiseworthy.

  27. Has any gathering ever assembled a nation's great men

    as fully as his renowned funeral gathered them?

  28. Within it were religious leaders and governors, and everyone

    among his people who is a lord and pillar.

  29. They came in throngs to bid him farewell, until you saw

    nothing but delegation following delegation.

  30. Among Muslims and Christians alike, he had

    only loyal, sincere, loving friends.

  31. O you whom we bid farewell, shall we grieve at parting

    when the command is God's command, whenever He wills?

  32. One who, like you, devoted his lifetime to chivalrous virtue—

    his memory is owed honor and perpetuation.

  33. I grieved for Abdullah when his death was announced at dawn;

    there is no replacing him, nor has he any peer.

  34. He stood unrivaled in Egypt as a man of letters and a scholar—

    alas, what calamity, that the peerless standard should fall!

  35. His loss has bereaved us; life after him brings no joy.

    Then Your mercy, O my Lord, be upon him; and praise is Yours.

Sol 5.6