1. يا حافرَ اللحدِ لا تَعجَل على ولدي

    وانظر إليه لعل الروح في الجسد

    O digger of the grave, do not hurry over my son.

    And look at him: perhaps the soul is in the body.

  2. فالحسن ما زال من فرقٍ إلى قدمٍ

    تم الملاحة لم ينقص ولم يزد

    For beauty still spans him from crown to foot,

    his loveliness complete, neither diminished nor increased.

  3. الخد كالورد والأجفان غامضةٌ

    كالنرجس الغض والأطراف كالزبد

    His cheek is like a rose, his eyelids closed,

    like fresh narcissus, his extremities like foam.

  4. كأنه نائمٌ أو شاربٌ ثملٌ

    بين الرياض وبين الطائر الغرد

    As though he were asleep, or a drunken drinker,

    amid the gardens and the warbling bird.

  5. ما مال عاتقُه سبحان خالقه

    إلّا لما فيه من حسنٍ ومن غيد

    His shoulder has tilted—glory to his Creator—

    only because of the beauty and graceful suppleness in him.

  6. وا حسرتاه جنى منه الردى قمراً

    عف الردا ما جنى يوماً على أحد

    Alas, my sorrow! Death plucked from him a moon,

    of unstained cloak, who never once wronged anyone.

  7. العدل والفضل والمعروف والكرم ال

    موصوف والمجد في أثوابه الجدد

    Justice, excellence, kindness, and generosity—

    renowned—and glory dwell in his new garments.

  8. ساروا به لضريحٍ ليته بصري

    على أريكة نعشٍ ليتها كبدي

    They bore him to a tomb—would that it were my eye—

    upon a bier's couch—would that it were my liver.

  9. وغيبوه فغاب الحسن أجمعه

    عن ناظري واستقر الحزن في جسدي

    They hid him away, and all beauty vanished

    from my sight, and grief settled in my body.

  10. وا حيرتي وا عذابي وابتعاد كرى

    عيني التي بعدت عن ذلك الأسد

    Ah, my bewilderment! Ah, my torment! And sleep has fled

    my eye, now far removed from that lion.

  11. ذاك الذي غاب عن عيني وخلفني

    كالضب في الماء أو كالنون في البلد

    That one who vanished from my eye and left me

    like a desert lizard in water, or a fish on dry land.

  12. ذاك الذي كان كالصمصام طوع يدي

    يذود عني صروف الهم والنكد

    That one who was like a keen sword obedient to my hand,

    warding off from me the trials of worry and misery.

  13. دكت منيته أسوار مصطبري

    وسوَّرتني بأسوارٍ من الكمد

    His death battered down the walls of my endurance

    and enclosed me within walls of pent-up sorrow.

  14. ما حيلتي بعد إبرهيم ما عملي

    يا لوعتي يا نحولي يا خلوَّ يدي

    What recourse have I after Ibrahim? What can I do?

    O my anguish! O my wasting! O my hand, bereft

  15. من صارمٍ باترٍ من جوهرٍ يققٍ

    من كوكبٍ باهرٍ من سيدٍ سند

    of a sharp, severing sword, of a pure-white jewel,

    of a brilliant star, of a lord, a support!

  16. ما كنت أعرف كيف الوجد يفتك بال

    أكباد قبل وجود الوجد في كبدي

    I did not know how grief wreaks havoc on

    livers, before grief came to dwell in my own liver.

  17. ولا حسدت فتىً حرّاً على ولدٍ

    لكنني كنت محسوداً على ولدي

    Nor did I envy a noble young man for a son,

    but I was envied for my son.

  18. تفديك يا ولدي الأرواح لو علمت

    أن المنون تفدِّي الدرَّ بالبرد

    Souls would ransom you, my son, if I knew

    that death would accept hailstones as ransom for pearls.

  19. واللَه لو أن داعي الموت يقبل بي

    لقلت يا هاذم اللذات خذ بيدي

    By God, if death's caller would accept me instead,

    I would say, “O destroyer of pleasures, take my hand.”

  20. يا لوعة الدهر ما أبقيت لي سنداً

    تبت يداك التي جارت على سندي

    O anguish of time, you have left me no support!

    Perish your hands, which wronged my support!

  21. ما كنت أحسب أن الموت يسلبني

    رب الثلاثين والسبعون من مُدَدي

    I never thought that death would rob me of

    the man of thirty, while my own years numbered seventy,

  22. حتى رأيت فتاة الحي نائحةً

    تذري المدامع من مثنىً ومن وُحَدي

    until I saw the maiden of the quarter wailing,

    shedding tears, two by two and one by one,

  23. والأمَّ سائحةً تحثو التراب على

    يافوخها وتنادي آه يا سندي

    and his mother wandering, casting handfuls of earth upon

    the crown of her head, crying, “Ah, my support!

  24. لا تدفنوا ولدي في اللحد يتركني

    هذي عيوني ادفنوا في ناظري ولدي

    Do not bury my son in the grave and let him leave me;

    here are my eyes—bury my son within them!”

  25. واللَه ما كان ظني أن تغادرني

    غوائلُ الموت أحيى بعدَهُ لغد

    By God, I never thought I would be left

    by death's calamities to live until tomorrow after him.

  26. فقدر اللَه أن يرقى لجنته

    وأن أدوم بدار الذل والنكد

    So God decreed that he should ascend to His Paradise,

    and that I should remain in the abode of abasement and misery.

  27. سقاه خالقه أزكى مراحمه ال

    عظمى وكرَّمه بالمنظر الصمدي

    May his Creator give him to drink of His purest mercies—

    the greatest—and honor him with the vision of the Eternal One.

  28. فهو الكريم وإبرهيم ما بخلت

    يوماً يداه من الدنيا على أحد

    For He is the Generous, and Ibrahim—never did

    his hands withhold worldly goods from anyone, on any day.

  29. وهو الجميل الذي يولي الجميل ولا

    يقصي المؤمل عن رضوانه الأبدي

    And He is the Beautiful, who bestows kindness and does not

    bar the hopeful from His eternal favor.