فؤاد بنيران المصاب مفأد

وعين سماها مبرق المزن مرعد

A heart scorched by the fires of bereavement,

and an eye whose rainclouded sky flashes and thunders,

وجسم براه الحزن كالبري بالمدى

فصار كمثل السلك في الحرب تسرد

and a body grief has whittled as knives whittle,

until it became like wire woven into armor for war.

طريحاً على فرش الضنى لم يزل لقىً

ولي كبد حرى وطرف مسهد

Cast upon the bedding of wasting sickness, still a discarded thing,

I have a burning liver and a sleepless eye.

وأنة قد قدت ضلوعي وزفرة

تكاد بروحي للخياشيم تصعد

And a moan has split my ribs, and a sigh

almost rises to my nostrils, bearing my soul.

وقد عبدت مني الرزايا خلائقاً

وعهدي بها من قبل ذا لا تعبد

Calamities have subdued dispositions in me

that I had known, before this, never to submit.

وكنت أمرأ جلدا على كل حادث

فقد صار لي أعدى الأعادي التجلد

I was a man steadfast against every misfortune;

now stoic endurance has become my bitterest enemy.

لكل أناس سيد يقتدي به

وإِني لأهل الفقد والحزن سيد

Every people has a leader they follow,

and I am the leader of the bereaved and sorrowful.

لديّ عجيب أَن أُرى متبسماً

وما سرني إِلا البكا والتوجد

To me, it is strange to be seen smiling,

for nothing has pleased me but weeping and grieving.

فليت فمي إِن أَكثر السن ضاحكا

سروراً يرى كالطعنة الرمح أدرد

Would that my mouth, if it bared many teeth in laughter

for joy, were seen toothless, as after a spear-thrust.

وقد لذت الأحزان عندي لأنها

غدت ديدنا حيث الأَسى يتجدد

Sorrows have become sweet to me, for they

have become my constant habit, as grief is renewed.

وقد أَتلقى الناس والعقل عازب

ولم أدر إصداري من حيث أَورد

Sometimes I meet people while my reason is absent,

nor know how to leave the watering-place I enter.

مصائب شتى جمعت لي مصيبة

وعدة حزن أكثفت لا تعدد

Various calamities have combined into one calamity for me,

and a multitude of sorrows has gathered beyond counting.

على تالد الأيام لي طارف الأَسى

وفي كل يوم لي من الحزن مشهد

Upon my old store of days falls newly acquired grief,

and every day brings me a scene of sorrow.

كأن الليالي طالبتني بثأرها

وقد أدركته حيث مني يوجد

As though the nights demanded their vengeance from me,

and had obtained it wherever it could be found in me.

وإن دام هذا الحزن عندي قليله

فقدت مع المفقود من حيث يفقد

If even a little of this grief endures with me,

I shall be lost with the lost one, where loss takes place.

وهيهات لا حزن كحزني لأنني

أَقوم به من غير عقل وأَقعد

Far from it—no grief is like mine, for I

rise and sit with it, bereft of reason.

ألا بكر الناعي بكاملة الحجى

وطاهرة الأَعراق وَالعُرض أمجد

Ah, the death-announcer came early with news of a woman of perfect understanding,

of pure lineage, and most glorious honor;

كريمة قوم ما بها عضُّ هجنة

يقدسها صيت ومجد ومحتد

a noblewoman of her people, untouched by the bite of base birth,

hallowed by renown, glory, and ancestry;

حصاناً كسا أَخلاقها رونق الحيا

وما هي إِلا في الملمات جلمد

a chaste woman whose character modesty's luster clothed,

and amid calamities she was nothing but solid rock.

خديراً تمنى النجم اسقاط لفظها

ويسقط إجلالاً لها ويمجد

A secluded woman whose stray words the star longed for,

and it falls in reverence for her and extols her.

تبيت خميص البطن غرثى من الطوى

وجاراتها في عيشها الرغد رغد

She would spend the night hollow-bellied, famished with hunger,

while her women neighbors lived at ease amid her abundance.

عقيم من الفحشا ولود من الثنا

سبوق إِلى الحسنى لها الفضل واليد

Barren of indecency, prolific in praise,

foremost in good deeds, possessing merit and beneficence.

بقية نسوان مضت لسبيلها

فلا دهرها يرجى ولا هي توجد

The last of such women, she has gone her way;

her age cannot be hoped for again, nor can she be found.

هي الزوجة المعوان في السخط والرضى

وفي الدين والدنيا وجدك مسعد

She was the wife ever helpful in displeasure and contentment,

and, by your fortune, a support in faith and worldly life.

إِذا حلت الأَضياف بالليل ساحتي

ونام على لين الفراش المزند

When guests came by night into my courtyard,

and the miser slept upon soft bedding,

تطوف على خفض القدور ورفعها

وجاراتها فوق المطارح هجد

she busied herself lowering and lifting the pots,

while her women neighbors slept upon their mats.

وتملي جفانا كالجواني لضيفها

ثريداً وذو الاحسان للضيف يثرد

She filled bowls like great basins for her guest

with broth-soaked bread; a kindly host crumbles bread into broth for his guest.

وكانت على الدين الحنيفي حافظاً

على أَنها فيه تنص وتسند

She kept watch over the upright faith,

citing its texts and giving their chains of transmission.

وكانت على فقدي تحاذر قبلها

وتدعو بأن أبقى لنسلي وتفقد

She feared losing me before her own death,

and prayed that I remain for my offspring and she be taken.

لبست قشيب الدهر منذ لبستها

فلا الماء مغبر ولا العيش أَنكد

I wore time's fresh raiment ever since I clothed myself in her;

the water was never clouded, nor life made wretched.

زماني بها غض وعودي بها يد

وحلمي بها كهل وخدي أمرد

My days with her were fresh, and through her my bough was supple [reading uncertain];

my judgment through her was mature, though my cheek was beardless.

ولما نعى الناعي بها فكأنني

لكعب بن سلمى وهي في الفقد أيرد

When the death-announcer announced her death, it was as though I

were Ka'b ibn Salma, and she, in bereavement, Ayrad.

فما أم خسف أودعته خميلة

وظلت بروض الزند ترعىوتورد

For no doe that left her fawn in a thicket,

and spent the day grazing and going to water in the meadow of al-Zand,

إِلى أن لعاب الشمس رقرق دونه

وحان لها وقت الرضاع المعربد

until the sun's spittle shimmered before him,

and her time came for clamorous suckling—

خطت دونه تستنشق الزهر دونه

وتنظر من هنا وهناً تلدد

she stepped before him, breathing the flowers' fragrance before him,

and looked here and there, turning anxiously.

فلما أتت دون الكناس تلفتت

إِلى قانص للخلف يدنو ويخلد

When she came near the lair, she turned

toward a hunter drawing near the offspring and crouching low.

وما راعها إلا ترشح دمه

وقد نزعت فيه الحوايا وأكبد

Nothing startled her but his blood seeping out,

his entrails and livers already torn out.

فما برحت تلتاع حول كناسه

وترفع رأساً للسماء وتصمد

She never ceased agonizing around his lair,

raising her head toward heaven and fixing her gaze.

ولما أتاها الليل باتت تقصه

تغور له طوراً وطوراً فتنجد

When night came to her, she spent it tracking him,

now descending into lowlands for him, now climbing the heights—

بأوجد مني يوم سارت جنازة

إِلى لحد قبر بالذروب يمهد

was more grief-stricken than I the day a funeral bier moved

toward a grave-niche being prepared at al-Dhurub.

مجاورة قوماً ولا وصل بينهم

وليس لهم في هامد الترب عود

She dwells beside a people with no bond among them,

and in the lifeless dust there is no return for them.

يقولون لي يوم الخميس مبارك

له المشتري سعد وما فيه أسعد

They tell me, 'Thursday is blessed;

Jupiter favors it with luck'—yet I find no happiness in it.

إذا مر لي يوم الخميس وليله

تمرر شربي وهو عذب مبرد

Whenever Thursday and its night pass over me,

my drink turns bitter, though sweet and cooled.

وإِن عرضت فوق الرقاب جنازة

تحيرت أَو أَني على الحزن أَوجد

If a funeral bier is borne above people's necks,

I am bewildered, or grow still more grief-stricken.

وإِن نظرت عيني غريباً وحمزة

وإخوتهم حولي وهم يتوجدوا

If my eye looks upon Gharib and Hamza,

and their siblings around me, grieving,

يقولون لي قل من لنا بعد أمنا

ومن غيرها نأوي إليها ونقصد

they say, 'Tell us, who is there for us after our mother?

And to whom but her can we go for refuge and turn?'

أجود بنفسي في عزاهم كآبة

وهم بالنفوس للكآبة أجود

I give my soul away in grief while consoling them,

but they give their souls to grief more freely.

أَقول لهم إِن الحياة شهية

ولكن على مر الجديدين تنفد

I tell them, 'Life is sweet,

but with the passing of the ever-new day and night, it runs out.

وكل له وقت فما عنه فمرحل

وليس له عن يومه الفرد مفرد

Everyone has an appointed time, with no departure from it,

and none can escape his solitary day.

وما المال والأهلون إِلا تعلة

وما الدار إِلا ما قناها المخلد

Wealth and family are but a diversion,

and a home is only that acquired by the one who lives forever.

عليك بحسن الصبر فالصبر حلة

معظمد المقدار من حيث توجد

Hold fast to noble patience, for patience is a robe

of exalted worth wherever it is found.'

سقى أمكم في قبرها كل ساعة

من المزن رجاس العشيات مُلبد

May your mother in her grave be watered every hour

by a dense raincloud, rumbling through the evenings.

وصلى عليها الله بعد محمد

فخير صلاة خص فيها محمد

May God bless her after Muhammad,

for the finest blessing is that specially granted to Muhammad.