خلق الموت فناء لبقاء

وجزاء من نعيم أو شقاء

Death's creation is for extinction and existence

Death was created as annihilation leading to permanence,

And recompense of bliss or misery

A recompense of either bliss or misery,

ولقاء في فراق باغتا

كل نفس أو فراقا في لقاء

And a meeting in a sudden separation

A meeting within a sudden separation

Every soul or a separation in a meeting

Befalling every soul, or a separation within a meeting.

حاشر الخلق الى خلاقها

ومزجيها الى فصل القضاء

Gatherer of creation to its Creator

It gathers creation unto its Creator,

And its mixer to the judgment separation

Driving them toward the final decree.

هو معفي العقل من تكليفه

ومريح الجسم من جهد البلاء

It relieves the mind from its obligation

It relieves the intellect of its burden,

And comforts the body from the effort of affliction

And rests the body from the toil of affliction.

هو منجى الأرض من اشرارها

منقذ ابن الأرض من دنيا العناء

It saves the earth from its evils

It is the earth's deliverance from its wicked ones,

Rescuer of the son of earth from the trouble of lament

The rescuer of earth's son from this world of suffering.

أيها الانسان هل أنت لما

راع من شتى المراءي فيك راءى

Oh human, have you been watching

O Man, do you—regarding what startles you

The manifold sights in you like a beholder

Among the myriad visions within—truly see?

حمت كالطير بسر أزلا

لا بريش في صحفاء لا هواء

You flew like a bird with the secret of eternity

You hovered like a bird with an eternal secret,

With no feathers in clear air or atmosphere

Without feathers, in a void without air,

حول عرش من سناء وسنا

وكمال وجلال وبهاء

Around a throne of brilliance, perfection

Around a Throne of brilliance and light,

Glory, majesty and splendor

Of perfection, majesty, and splendor.

اذ جرى العهد واذ قلت بلى

فيه لو شفعت وعدا بالوفاء

When the covenant took place and you said "yes"

When the Covenant was struck, and you answered "Yes,"

In it, had you interceded and promised loyalty

If only you had followed that promise with fulfillment.

وتلاعمت (هيولى) فالتقى

حمأ الأرض وإشراق السماء

And the two abstracts met

And matter coalesced, so there met together

The fervor of earth and the glow of heaven

The black mud of earth and the radiance of heaven.

عنصران امتزجا في صورة

نضرة رصا بها رص البناء

Two elements blended in an image

Two elements blended into a single form,

Green, integral in it integral construction

Verdant, compacted within it like a sturdy edifice.

واذا الطير بفخ مثقل

عجب الصنعة من طين وماء

And when the bird in a heavy trap

Suddenly, the bird lies within a heavy trap,

Marvelous workmanship of clay and water

A marvel of craftsmanship made of clay and water.

فتنزى رهنه حتى اذا

حطم الفخ تنزى في الفضاء

It rose above it until when

It struggled in its captivity until, when

It broke the trap, rose into the sky

The trap was shattered, it leaped into the void,

دامي الجرح عليه مسحة

من شحوب وبه وخز حياء

My bleeding wound has a touch

Bleeding from its wound, bearing a trace

Of pallor, shame and sting of bashfulness

Of pallor, and within it a sting of shame.

كدت أجلو الروح لولا أن من

أمر ربي صونه تحت الخفاء

I almost let out my soul unless the one

I nearly unveiled the Spirit, were it not that by

Who commanded my Lord protected it in hiding

My Lord’s command, it must be kept in concealment.

هو لغز الله عماه فما

كشفه غير خيال وادعاء

It is God's riddle, he blinded so

It is God’s riddle which He made obscure, so nothing

None revealed it but fantasy and claim

Has unveiled it save imagination and pretension.

عجز العقل عن الروح وما

زال بين اليأس فيه والرجاء

The mind is helpless about the soul and

The intellect failed to grasp the Spirit, and remains

Remains between despair in it and hope

Wavering between despair regarding it and hope.

أستميح العفو في خوضي فما

هو إلا من هيام الشعراء

I ask for forgiveness in my audacity for it

I seek forgiveness for delving into this, for it is but

Is but the ravings of poets

A product of the poets’ wandering delirium.

أي هواة الفن أحرار الحجى

حصفاء الذوق أبرار الإخاء

Oh lovers of art, free speakers

O lovers of art, O liberal minds,

Discerning tastes, righteous brothers

Of refined taste and righteous brotherhood,

أدركوا بالعطف أما ثاكلا

لم تبارحها عوادي البرحاء

Realize with kindness, do not be

Reach out with compassion to a bereaved mother,

Abandoner whom ruin of separation haunted

Whom the ravages of severe distress have not left.

رزئت بكرين لن ترزأهما

قط أم مبكر بالنجباء

I was hurt by two beings time will never

She was bereft of two noble sons; never was such loss suffered

Hurt nor a mother hurt by the loss of babies

By a mother who bore such noble offspring.

هذه أناتها رنانة

رددتها اليوم أصداء الجواء

These are her sighs chanting

These are her moans, resonating loudly,

Echoed today by the airs of atmosphere

Which the echoes of the skies repeated today.

وتخلت عن مباراة اللغى

بعد نهدين لها قيدي ظباء

I gave up competing with the eloquent

She has abandoned the rivalry of words,

After two shining lights tied me, a prisoner

After losing two towering figures, swift as gazelles,

خاطفي برقين سهمي صائد

صائب ريحي رخاء ورخاء

Whose lightning was my arrows, hunting

Snatching like two flashes of lightning, like two hunter’s arrows,

A sure wind, slowly and slowly

Striking true amidst winds of ease and prosperity.

صحف الشرق جرت أنهارها

عبرات بعبارات الرثاء

The east's papers, her rivers flowed

The journals of the East have had their rivers flow

With tears in phrases of elegy

With tears amidst the phrases of eulogy.

أعربت لا بسواد الحبر بل

بسواد العين عن سوء سواء

It expressed not in black ink but

They expressed themselves not with black ink, but

In the black of the eye, the evil of evil

With the very pupils of the eye, mourning a grievous common fate.

أي قلب لم يكدر بالأسى

أي طرف لم يفجر بالبكاء؟

What heart has not been perturbed by grief

What heart has not been troubled by sorrow?

What eye has not overflowed with crying?

What eye has not burst forth with weeping?

هل على الدوار من نسريه أو

فرقديه بعض حسن وضياء

Does it have some charm or

Is there remaining in the spinning firmament, of its two Eagles or

Grace of my two eagles?

Its two Farqad stars, any beauty or light?

أفلا أندب نجمين به

أفلا، بعد ازدهار وازهاء؟

Should I not mourn two stars that died

Shall I not mourn two stars within it,

Should I not, after thriving and shining?

Shall I not, after their flourishing and brilliance?

سائلوا البرزخ عن ضيفيه هل

لهما صيت كما في الأرض نائي

Ask the isthmus about my two guests, do they

Ask the Realm of Spirits about its two guests: do they

Have renown as they did on distant earth

Possess renown there as far-reaching as on earth?

سائلوا البرزخ عن طيريه هل

غردا فيه بنوح أو غناء؟

Ask the isthmus about my two birds, did they

Ask the Realm of Spirits about its two birds: do they

Chirp in it a song or melody?

Warble therein with wailing or with song?

ضرب الحجر على حنجرة

صوتها غاد على الأحياء جاءي

The rock has silenced its voice, it came

The seal of silence has been stamped upon a throat

Upon the living, an absentee

Whose voice once came and went among the living.

ملأ الصمت عليها ملأ

ملكي الجمع قدسي الرواء

Silence has filled it, the silence

Silence has engulfed it completely,

Of my two angels, sacred and satisfying.

An angelic gathering, of holy countenance.