دهر يزعزع ركن المجد والأدب

فاحذر أخا الفضل من بلواه واحتسب

Time shakes the pillar of glory and literature

So beware, O brother of virtue, of its afflictions and prepare

يطوق فينا بكاسات فيسكرنا

من خمرة الحزن لا من خمرة العنب

It makes us drink cups until we are drunk

With the wine of sorrow, not the wine of grapes

يا من يغرهم من كأسه حبب

كم أمةٍ شرقت في ذلك الحبب

O you who are deceived by his cup's sweetness

How many a nation was ruined by that sweetness

يروغ والعهد منه في الثبات حكى

خيطاً من القطن في خط من اللهب

He is evasive while his covenant is steadfastness

Like a thread of cotton in a line of flame

وطالب أمنه والغدر شيمته

كمن يوفق بين النار والحطب

And seeking his security while betrayal is his trait

Is like reconciling fire and firewood

لولا الإله وحاشا من معارضة

لقلت دهر كذوب بل أبو الكذب

If not for God—God forbid opposing Him

I would say time is a liar, nay the father of lies

وقلت واللّه ما في حكمه حكم

وأن أتت فلتة من أعجب العجبِ

And I would say, by God, there is no wisdom in its rule

Even if the strangest strangeness were to come

تبت يداه رماه اللّه في عطب

كما رما شيخنا ناصيف بالعطب

May its hands be severed, may God cast it into misery

As He cast our Shaykh Nasif into misery

اليازجي الذي عمت فضائلهُ

صحائف الأمتين العجم والعرب

Al-Yaziji whose virtues have spread

Among the scrolls of both non-Arabs and Arabs

دست الرسوم وكشاف الهموم ومص

باح العلوم حميد الفعل واللقبِ

The composer of principles and uncoverer of worries and source

Of sciences, praiseworthy in deed and title

حق علينا مدى الأيام نندبه

حق لفضل لهُ كالحق للنسبِ

It is right for us, for as long as days continue, to mourn him

A right for his merit like the right to ancestry

نرثيه ما دام دمع والحياة بنا

وكلما قلم يجري على الكتبِ

We grieve him as long as there are tears and life in us

And as long as pens flow over books

فكم هدينا بشمس من معارفه

وفكرة سطعت كالأنجم الشهبِ

For how much he has guided us with a sun of his knowledge

And ideas that shone like shooting stars

وكم له في جبين الدهر من ملح

قد سار يزهو بها كالمفرد العدبيِ

And how he has, on the brow of time, salt

That went about it proudly like the lone camel

في الخافقين لقد رنّ قصائده

وكم تغنت بها الآلات في الطربِ

His poems have surely echoed in the horizons

And how much have instruments sung them in musical joy

نروي بحور قريض عنهُ وأسفي

وطالما قد روي من بحره اللجبِ

We relay the seas of his poetry and my sorrows

And for so long has his heavy rain been relayed

فلا يؤمني بهذا العصر من أحد

أن قلت مات وربي أفصح العرب

So let no one reassure me in this age

That if I said he died, by my Lord the most eloquent of Arabs

ودعته ودموع العين طاغيةٌ

سيلا تودع بحر الفضل والأدبِ

I bade him farewell and tears overflowed copiously

Bidding farewell at the sea of virtue and literature

يا ويلتي ذا وداع لا لقاءَ لهُ

فيه فوادي غدا في أعظم الكربِ

Oh my woe for a farewell that has no reunion

In which my heart will face greatest distress tomorrow

كيف السلو وما ناحت مطوقة

إلا ونوحي علا عن صدر منتخبِ

How can there be solace when no lamenting circle has wailed

Except my wailing atop the chest of the select

وأنني سوف أسلوه إذا خمدت

نار الفؤاد وعاد الصبر كالضربِ

That I will console myself when the fire in my heart subsides

And patience returns like precise arrows

سار الهمام الذي بالأمس كان لنا

وللأنام أمام العلم والطلبِ

The champion who yesterday was ahead of us

And ahead of people in knowledge and seeking

يا كوكباً سار نحو البدر عن شغف

قوموا أنظروا الكوكب السيار في التربِ

O you planet that traveled toward the full moon in passionate zeal

Arise and see the wandering planet in the soil

نحو الحبيب لقد سارت رواحلهُ

لما علا حبهُ أعلى علا الرتبِ

Toward the Beloved indeed have its mounts traveled

When love of Him transcended the highest ranks

زياك غصن رطيب جف مورده

وبذرتم وهي بالكسف والنوبِ

Your fresh branch has withered for lack of its stream

And you have sown while in hardship and fatigue

سقيتِ مزن الرضايا تربة جمعت

بين الحبيبين خير أبن وخير أبِ

You have watered the land of contentment that brought together

The two best beloveds, the best son and father

فإن يغيب ذلك البحر العميم فذي

جدواه في مجمع البحرين لم تغبِ

If that expansive sea is absent, this

Is its replacement at the confluence lack nothing