أذرت عليك دموعها الانداء

يا زهرة عصفت بها النكباء

The tears shed for you made the valleys flow,

The morning dews have shed their tears for you,

O flower swept away by misfortune!

O flower, battered by the winds of calamity.

ماذا دهاك من الحياة فعفتها

وعرتك فيها نظرة سوداء

What did life do to make you spurn it,

What struck you in this life that made you loathe it,

And cast on you such a gloomy look?

And cast upon you such a dark and hopeless gaze?

ألقيت نفسك من شفير شاهق

يخشى الوقوف بجنبه الجرآء

You threw yourself off a steep precipice,

You cast yourself down from a towering precipice,

Too daunting for the bold to stand nearby.

Beside which even the brave fear to stand.

ما هابه الليث الهصور من الردى

قدرت عليه الظبية الهيفاء

The fierce lion did not fear ruin

That death which the crushing lion feared to face,

When able to overcome it, the gentle doe did.

The slender doe found the strength to undertake.

صدمتك من وادي الرمال صخوره

وطواك منه لدى الهوي هواء

The rocks in the sandy valley crushed you,

The rocks of the sandy valley crashed against you,

And the abyss cast you into the air.

And the air engulfed you as you plummeted down.

وسقطت صرعى لم يقلك في الثرى

فرش ولم يسدل عليك غطاء

You fell dead, the earth did not spread out carpets for you,

You fell struck down; on the ground there was no

Nor cover you with a shroud.

Bed to receive you, nor cover draped above.

وقضيت لا قربى تحوط ولا يد

تأسو ولا عطف ولا إدناء

You passed away with no kin to protect you,

You passed away with no kin to surround you, no hand

No hand to console, no sympathy or leaning down.

To heal your wounds, no kindness, no embrace.

فبكتك في (سرتا) ظباء كناسها

وشبولها وغياضها الغناء

So Sirt’s gazelles wept for you,

The gazelles in their coverts in Sirta wept for you,

as did its mountain goats and singing valleys.

Along with its lion cubs and its lush, singing thickets.

وتساررت فيها بنعيك ورقها

ورقاء تهدل إثرها ورقاء

The leaves whispered your elegy and fell down,

The doves there whispered the news of your death,

Leaf after leaf, in succession.

One dove cooing in mourning after another.

أسفي عليك ذوى شبابك فجأة

قبل الجنى وجنى عليه جفاء

Those of your youth grieved for you suddenly,

My sorrow is upon you; your youth withered suddenly,

Before enjoying you or your generosity.

Before the harvest, cut down by a harsh fate.

ضاقت بك الدنيا بما حبت فما

وسعتك أرض أو وقتك سماء

The world was too narrow for how it loved you,

The world, with all its vastness, became too narrow for you,

No land or time could accommodate you.

No earth could hold you, no sky could offer shelter.

وأجلت طرفك في الوجوه جميعها

فاذا الضياء أمامه ظلماء

You looked away from all faces,

You cast your gaze across every face around you,

Yet in front of you was only darkness.

But found that even the light before you was darkness.

فسخوت بالدنيا وزهرتها لمن

في البؤس عز بها عليه سخاء

So you spurned the world and its flowers for one

So you freely gave up the world and its bloom to those

Who found pride in misery and was generous in destitution.

For whom, even in misery, such generosity is hard.

الموت جاءك خاطبا فرضيته

زوجا وباء بصدك الخطباء

Death came to you as a suitor and you accepted him

Death came to you as a suitor, and you accepted him

As a husband, though your dowry, bride, was blood.

As a husband, while other suitors bore your rejection.

فزففت في عرس لزوجك

صاخب لكن خضابك يا عروس دماء

Your dowry, o bride, was agony

You were led in a wedding procession to your spouse,

That melted the innards in its fire.

A clamorous rite, but your henna, O bride, was blood.

أما صداقك يا عروس فلوعة

حرى تذوب بنارها الاحشاء

It was a tragedy for you, o bride, and an affliction

As for your dowry, O bride, it was heart-wrenching anguish,

That befell your family and relatives.

A burning grief that melts the very entrails with its fire.

وفجيعة بك يا عروس وجيعة

نكبت بها الأهلون والقرباء

I cannot condone your demise, though it was

And a tragedy concerning you, O bride, so painful,

Unavoidable, it remains a heinous slip.

By which your family and kin have been devastated.

لا أستبيح لك التردي إنه

رغم اضطرارك زلة نكراء

I cannot relish your fall, even if

I do not condone your plunge into the abyss, for truly,

It protected you from all misfortunes.

Despite your desperation, it is a grave and denial-worthy sin.

لا أستطيب لك الردى ولو أنه

لك من جميع النائبات وقاء

In every disaster, every monotheist

I do not welcome death for you, even if it were

Has hope that it will be uncovered and removed.

A shield for you against all of life’s calamities.

في كل كارثة لكل موحد

أمل له في كشفها ورجاء

Hardship for one whose faith is firm

In every disaster, for every believer in God,

Becomes easy, and adversity becomes bounty.

There remains hope and prayer for relief.

من كان مرتكز اليقين فعسره

يسر عليه وبؤسه نعماء

What did you gain? Did its affection fail you,

Whoever is anchored in certainty, their hardship

And a father whose hand was gentle?

Becomes ease for them, and their misery becomes a blessing.

ماذا جنت أم جبتك حنانها

وأب عليك له يد بيضاء؟

Bearing adversity painfully from you,

What crime did a mother commit, who showered you with tenderness,

And saddened by your misery.

Or a father, whose hand was ever benevolent towards you?

مستهما الضراء منك أليمة

ودهتهما من بؤسك البأساء

They both grieved for you and were saddened

A painful adversity has touched them because of you,

As you left the gatherings desolate.

And despair has struck them through your despair.

فكلاهما آس عليك وآسف

قد برحت بحشاهما البرحاء

I think you made a mistake in killing yourself,

Both of them are mourning for you, sorrowful,

It is a shameful sin and foolish thought.

While agony violently tears at their hearts.

أخطأت رأيا في انتحارك إنه

ذنب يشين وفكرة حمقاء

Your suicide was not a single tragedy,

You erred in judgment by taking your own life; truly,

But repeated tragedies.

It is a shameful sin and a foolish thought.

ليس انتحارك كان رزءا واحدا

في وقعه بل إنه أرزاء

Problems are not solved by an incident

Your suicide was not a single calamity,

That adds misery upon misery.

In its impact, but a multitude of calamities.

ما كان حل المشكلات بحادث

للنفس فيه على الشقاء شقاء

I stand over you as a poet, eulogizing you,

Solving problems was never achieved by an act

If this elegy benefits you.

That adds misery upon existing misery for the soul.

إني وقفت عليك وقفة شاعر

أرثيك إن أجدى عليك رثاء

Regretful, and regret is a lament,

I have stood over you with the stance of a poet,

Reproachful, and reproach is weeping.

Mourning you, if mourning can be of any use to you.

متحسرا ومن التحسر ندبة

ومعاتبا ومن العتاب بكاء

I presented your case to suspicions and their tyranny,

Full of regret, and from such regret comes lamentation,

For suspicions are blind mounts.

And admonishing, and from such admonishment comes weeping.

عرضت عرضك للظنون وعسفها

إن الظنون مطية عمياء

I assumed the best about your character from hearsay,

You exposed your reputation to suspicions and their cruelty,

And perhaps it is innocent of what is said.

For suspicion is a blind beast to ride.

أزرى بعرضك ما يقال توهما

ولعله مما يقال براء

Your soul bore a noble affliction,

Rumors born of delusion have disparaged your name,

Perhaps it sacrificed itself for other souls.

While perhaps you are innocent of all they say.

وأصاب نفسك ما يجل مصابه

ولعل نفسك للنفوس فداء

Perhaps your tragedy was a mental outburst,

A grave affliction struck your soul,

A misstep in the journey, or fainting spell.

Yet perhaps your soul was a ransom for other souls.

ولعل رزأك نوبة نفسية

أوعثرة في السير أو إغماء

Or an affliction that burned your reason,

Perhaps your tragedy was a bout of mental anguish,

And burnt away your wisdom and intelligence.

A stumble in your path, or a momentary faint.

أو لفحة بك في ذكائك أحرقت

منك الحجى ومن الذكاء ذكاء

Hands carried your bier high

Or a fever in your brilliance that burned away

As if it were a ship full of tears underneath.

Your reason—for from intelligence comes a blazing fire.

قد حفت الأيدي بنعشك فاعتلى

كالفلك تزخر تحته الدأماء

It was not a funeral that bid you farewell, but a nation

Hands surrounded your coffin, raising it high,

That gathered and could not be counted.

Like a ship beneath which the ocean swells.

ما شيعتك جنازة بل أمة

نشرت فلم يستوفها إحصاء

All their hearts melted for you in mercy,

It was not a mere funeral procession that saw you off, but a nation,

And the Merciful accepts the merciful.

Spread so vast that no count could encompass it.

ذابت قلوب جميعهم لك رحمة

ورضى الرحيم يناله الرحماء

Is it a corpse above your bier, or a twin

All their hearts melted with mercy for you,

To your bier’s daughters, or the Gemini constellation?

And the pleasure of the Merciful is granted to the merciful.

هل فوق نعشك جثة أم توأم

لبنات نعش أم هي الجوزاء؟

Or a piece of the heart of a beautiful laughing one,

Is that a corpse upon your coffin, or a twin

Whose forehead shone radiantly through misfortunes?

To the stars of the Great Bear, or is it Gemini?

أم فلذة من قلب أروع ضاحك

للنائبات جبينه وضاء

Do not despair of your Lord’s spirit, He

Or a piece of a magnificent heart,

Forgives major sins and is Beneficent and Giving.

Whose brow remains bright and smiling in the face of calamity?

لا تيأسي من روح ربك إنه

ماحي الكبائر محسن معطاء

May God clothe you in his pardon,

Do not despair of the mercy of your Lord, for truly He

And quench you from his mercies.

Erases great sins, is Beneficent and Grieving.

أضفى عليك الله حلة عفوه

وسقتك من رحماته أنواء

And when God tests His servants through hardship,

May God drape you in the robe of His pardon,

It requires patience, supplication, and prayer from them.

And may the rains of His mercy water your soul.

واذا ابتلى الله العباد فجهدهم

صبر له وتضرع ودعاء

Say to the youth who are stubborn in their views,

When God tests His servants, their endeavor

And provocative in their passion.

Must be patience for His sake, supplication, and prayer.

قل للشباب المستبد برأيه

المستفزة وجده الأهواء

Who are warned by others’ mistakes,

Say to the youth who is obstinate in his opinion,

Their own errors inspire them to do right.

Whose passion is provoked by fleeting whims:

من يتغظ بسواه في أخطائه

تلهمه وجه صوابه الأخطاء

The suicide of the despairing is a terrible crime,

He who takes warning from the mistakes of others,

Which the cowardly are disgraced by.

Those mistakes will inspire him toward the right path.

إن انتحار اليائسين جناية

عظمى يبوء بخزيها الجبناء

Your life is a battle whose spoils go

The suicide of the despairing is a grave crime,

To the resolve of a lion and the will of a stubborn horse.

A heinous act whose shame is borne by cowards.

دنياك معركة يفوز بكسبها

رأي أسد وهمة قعساء

The earth is a market of opposites,

Your world is a battlefield; victory belongs

The way of the world is buying and selling in it.

To the lion-hearted judgment and the steadfast will.

والأرض سوق بالنقائض أفعمت

دأب الورى بيع بها وشراء

Success and failure are its variable offers,

The earth is a marketplace brimming with contradictions;

The living take and receive from both.

The habit of mankind is but buying and selling therein.

الفوز والإخفاق بعض عروضها

يعطى ويأخذ منهما الأحياء

Whoever cannot find hope in it has failed,

Triumph and failure are merely some of its wares;

Never to be hoped to gain wealth.

The living take and give of them both.

من فاته فيها الرجاء فمفلس

لا يرتجى أبدا له إثراء

People are the prey of misfortunes, all of them

He who loses hope in this world is truly bankrupt,

Targets for it in the ledger as it shoots arrows.

For him, no enrichment can ever be expected.

والخلق صيد النائبات فكلهم

غرض لها في الرصيد وهي رماء

Whoever escapes one tribulation falls into its like,

All creation is prey to the hunters of calamity,

From afflictions there is no escape to safety.

Targets lying in wait while fate takes aim.

من ينج من بلوى يقع في مثلها

فمن البلاوي لا يتاح نجاء

Then God judges and executes His judgement,

Whoever escapes one trial falls into another like it,

On all creatures as He wills and desires.

For from life’s tribulations, there is no final escape.

والله يحكم ثم يمضي حكمه

في الكائنات كما يرى ويشاء

Glorious is He, the realities of His knowledge

God decrees, and His decree is carried out

Are hidden from us, not grasped by reasoning.

Among all beings, just as He sees fit and wills.

سبحانه خفيت حقائق علمه

عنا فلم تستجلها الآراء

None succeeds except the trusting faithful,

Glory be to Him; the realities of His knowledge are hidden

No matter how much he is tested by affliction.

From us, and human minds cannot unveil them.

ما فاز الا مؤمن متوكل

متجمل مهما عراه بلاء

By holding to the means of God, he gains support,

None triumphs but the believer who relies on God,

And by submitting to the judgements of God, acceptance.

Bearing himself with grace whenever affliction befalls.

فله بأسباب الإله تمسك

وله بأحكام الإله رضاء

He holds fast to the ropes of the Divine,

And in the judgments of the Divine, he finds content.