دهتك الخطوب فهل تبصر

بما حل في الكون أو تصبر

Calamities have struck you—do you perceive

what has befallen the universe, or can you endure?

فسل إن جهلت نظام الوجود

فقلت الوجود به أخبر

Ask, if you do not know, the order of existence;

I answered: existence itself knows best.

فتلك شعائر دين الاله

هدمن فهد لها المشعر

Those were the sacred rites of God’s religion;

they were razed, and with them the Sacred Monument fell.

وهذي النجوم وأفلاكها

هوت مذ هوى القطب والمحور

These stars, together with their spheres,

have fallen since the pole and axis fell—

لرزء أطل على الكائنات

وكسر إلى الحشر لا يجبر

for a calamity looming over all creation,

a breach that will not be mended before Resurrection.

فذا ناصر الدين حل الثرى

وذا علم الحق لا ينشر

Here Nāsir al-Dīn lies in the dust,

and here the standard of truth is unfurled no more.

فقيد بكته عيون السما

بدمع ولكنه أحمر

One lost, for whom the eyes of heaven wept

with tears—but tears of crimson.

وبحر محيط أمد البحار

فنض فغاضت له الأبحر

An all-encompassing ocean that sustained the seas

has ebbed, and at its loss the seas ran dry.

فما بعد بعدك عنا لنا

مدى الدهر فخر ولا مفخر

After you have gone so far from us,

throughout all time we have no pride, nor cause for pride.

فلم أدر يومك أدهى شجي

على العالمين أم المحشر

I cannot tell whether the day of your death brought grief more dire

upon all worlds, or whether Resurrection will.

فقد ودت الأرض من فوقها

وأنك تحيي بها يقبر

The earth wished that whoever stood upon her

might be buried, and that you might live within her.

فحق لأعراضها أن تزول

غداة يفارقها الجوهر

It is fitting that all her accidents should vanish

when the substance departs from her.

ولو لم تمت قبلك الأنبياء

فمن لم يمت فيك لا يعذر

Had the prophets not died before you,

whoever did not die for you would be without excuse.

فيا حافرين ضريحا له

ففي غير قلبي لا تحفروا

O you who are digging a grave for him,

dig nowhere but within my heart.

وإن كانت الناس كلا مصاب

فإن المصاب بك الأكبر

Though all people, every one, are stricken,

the affliction of losing you is the greatest.

تركت العلوم وتدوينها

كأن لا وجود لها يذكر

You left the sciences and their recording

as though no existence of them remained to be recalled.

فيا طالب الهدي لا مرشد

لكي ترتجيه ولا مظهر

O seeker of guidance, there is no guide

in whom to place your hope, nor anyone to reveal the way.

ويا سالكين سواء الطريق

لقد سد بابكم فاقصروا

O travelers upon the straight road,

your gateway has been barred, so go no farther.

ويا طالبي الجود كفوا السؤال

فلم يبق بالجود من يؤثر

O seekers of generosity, cease your asking;

no one remains who gives from generosity before himself.

فبالعدل قاسمتني منصفا

ولكنما حظك الأوفر

In justice you divided fairly between us,

yet yours is the richer portion.

سكنت الجنان وأسكنت في

سويد الجنان لظى تسعر

You have dwelt in gardens and have lodged

a raging blaze in the heart’s darkest core.

شربت الرحيق وقلت الحريق

لقلبي هل ذاك والكوثر

You drank the nectar, while I said: “The burning

is in my heart—is that the same as al-Kawthar?”

لك السندس الخضر في خلدها

ولي المدمع الحمر والمحجر

Yours is the green silk in everlasting Paradise;

mine are crimson tears and grieving eyes.

فيا أهل هجر على هجره

لذيذ الرقاد ألا فاهجروا

O people of Hajar, because he has left you,

forsake all sleep—yes, forsake it.

ألا إنّ عيدا أصبتم به

فيوم الوعيد بكم أجدر

Behold, through him you have met a feast day;

yet the Day of Threat is fitter for you.

وعزّوا به سيدا قد رجوت

سيحيى به العلم والمنبر

Mourn in him a lord through whom I had hoped

that learning and the pulpit would be revived—

حسينا أبا هاشم من غدت

فضائله قط لا تنكر

Ḥusayn, Abū Hāshim, whose

virtues have never once been denied.