1. قسمة الموت قسمةٌ لا تجور

    كلُّ حيٍّ بكأسها مخمور

    Death's apportionment is an apportionment that never wrongs.

    Every living being is drunk from its cup.

  2. يستوي كل من تفاوت فيها

    لا أميرٌ يبقى ولا مأمور

    All who differed are made equal in it;

    neither ruler nor subject remains.

  3. نحن في غفلة وللموت فينا

    طالب مدرك مُجِدّ قدير

    We are heedless, while death has among us

    a pursuer who overtakes, tireless and mighty.

  4. نستطيب المنى وهن عواصٍ

    فنطيل الآمال وهي غرور

    We savor wishes, though they defy us;

    so we prolong our hopes, though they are delusion.

  5. فِكره في الحياة وهيْ ضلال

    إنّ في الموت يحسنُ التفكيرُ

    His thought is on life, though it is delusion;

    indeed, it is good to reflect on death.

  6. ليس ينجو من الغرور سوى مَنْ

    قبرهُ في فؤاده محفور

    None escapes delusion except one

    whose grave is dug within his heart.

  7. كدَّر الموتُ صفوَ عيشي وهل في الْ

    أَرْضِ عيشٌ ما شابَهُ تكدير

    Death has clouded my life's serenity; is there on the

    earth a life untouched by distress?

  8. وتذكرتُ بالمصائب قومي

    وجدودي إني لقومي ذَكُور

    And through misfortunes I remembered my people,

    and my forefathers; indeed, I am ever mindful of my people.

  9. أَيْنَ قومي الأُلَى الذين بهمْ كا

    ن يموت الخنا ويحيا الفقير

    Where are my people, those through whom

    vice would die and the poor would live?

  10. لو حَمَى معشراً من القوم حامٍ

    لحمتْ قوميَ العُلاَ والخِيرُ

    If a protector could shield any company of people,

    then eminence and goodness would have shielded my people.

  11. أين آبائي الذين تفانَوْا

    وبهمْ كانت الليالي تُنِير

    Where are my forefathers, who have all perished,

    and through whom the nights used to shine?

  12. أين جدّي حسينٌ بن عليّ

    أين زيدُ المفجَّع الموتور

    Where is my grandfather Husayn ibn Ali?

    Where is Zayd, grief-stricken and unavenged?

  13. أين مهِدِيُّنا المملَّكُ والقا

    ئمُ أين المعزّ والمنصور

    Where are our enthroned Mahdi and

    al-Qa'im? Where are al-Mu'izz and al-Mansur?

  14. أين تلك الحلوم والفضل والأَلْ

    باب بل أين ذلك التدبير

    Where are that wisdom, that excellence, and those

    intellects? Nay, where is that governance?

  15. أين ذاك السلطانُ والملكُ والمَنْ

    عةُ والبطشُ والعلا والظهور

    Where are that sovereignty, that kingship, that

    invulnerability, that might, that eminence, that ascendancy?

  16. أين تلك الجيوشُ والعزةُ القَعْ

    ساءُ والجمعُ والعديدُ الكثير

    Where are those armies and that unassailable

    might, those gathered hosts, those vast multitudes?

  17. فرّقتهمْ يَدُ المنون فبادُوا

    وَحوَتْهُمْ بعد القصور القبورُ

    Death's hand scattered them, and they perished;

    and graves enclosed them after palaces.

  18. سَلَفٌ صالح وأملاكُ صِدقٍ

    بهمُ تستوي وتُلْوَي الأمور

    Righteous forebears and kings of integrity,

    through whom affairs were set straight and steered.

  19. ثم عِشنا ثلاثةً بفم الحا

    سد من عيشنا الثَرَى والصخور

    Then we lived, three of us; may the mouth of the

    envier of our life be filled with dust and rocks!

  20. فعمَرْنا بذاك مدَّة دهرٍ

    كلُّنا ظاهرُ الرضا مسرور

    So we lived thus for a span of time,

    all of us visibly content and joyful.

  21. لم يعِش للمعزّ نَسْلٌ سِوانا

    كلُّ ميْتٍ بنجله مذكور

    No offspring of al-Mu'izz survived but us;

    every dead man is remembered through his son.

  22. فأصابت يدُ المنون عَقِيلاً

    وهو مثلُ القضيب غَضّ نضِير

    Then Death's hand struck Aqil,

    while he was like a bough, tender and fresh,

  23. حين هزّ الشبابُ أعطافَه الغِي

    دَ وحين استوى له التعمير

    when youth set his supple limbs swaying,

    and when his life had reached full maturity.

  24. لم يجاوِز حَدَّ الثلاثين إلا

    بليالٍ ليست لها تكثِير

    He had passed the threshold of thirty only

    by nights too few to be called many.

  25. أين تلك البشاشةُ الغضَّةُ الطلْ

    قةُ والنظَرُ البهِيُّ المنير

    Where is that fresh, beaming cheerfulness,

    and that splendid, shining gaze?

  26. أين ذاك الطبعُ السليمُ وذاك ال

    خُلُقُ العذْبُ والسَّنَا والنور

    Where is that sound nature, and that

    sweet character, that radiance and light?

  27. أين ذاك البِشرُ الذي كان يبدو

    مِنْ سَناه للناظرين البشير

    Where is that cheerfulness, from whose radiance

    a herald of glad tidings would appear to onlookers?

  28. كان عفَّ الضمير عذبَ السجايا

    ليس في سرّ أمره تعسير

    He was pure of conscience and sweet in disposition;

    there was no harshness in his inward nature.

  29. صادقَ الودّ وارِيَ الزَنْد لا يَعْ

    دُوهُ في كلّ حالةٍ تطهير

    True in affection, his firestick yielding sparks; purity never

    passed him by in any circumstance.

  30. صار من بعد ذلك الأُنسِ وَحْشاً

    وهُوَ في قعر حفرةٍ مهجور

    After that companionship, he became solitary,

    and he lies abandoned at the bottom of a pit.

  31. آهِ من لوعة لها في سواد الْ

    عينِ دمعٌ وفي الفؤاد زفير

    Ah, the anguish! In the black of the

    eye are tears, and in the heart a sigh!

  32. كيف يبقَى امرؤ توَلَّى أبوه

    وأخوه فحبْلهُ مبتور

    How can a man live on when his father has departed

    and his brother—his cord thus severed?

  33. بأن أَصل وجُدَّ فرعيَ واللّ

    هُ عليم بما تُجِنّ الصدور

    A root has departed, and my branch is severed; God

    knows what breasts conceal.

  34. فسأبكيك يا عَقِيل بقَلْبٍ

    فيه من حزنه عليك سعير

    So I shall weep for you, Aqil, with a heart

    in which its grief for you has kindled a blaze.

  35. كنتُ قِدماً أظنّ أنّي جَلِيد

    ليس يَلِوي عزيمتي المحذور

    I once thought myself stouthearted—

    no dreaded thing could bend my resolve.

  36. فأراني مما بلا الصبر عيًّا

    أيُّ قلبٍ على الخطوب صبور

    So I see myself helpless before what has tried patience:

    what heart can endure calamities?