هل كان حين قتلت سلب السالب

أقسى الردى أم كان ثلب الثالب

Was the plunderer’s plundering, when you were slain,

The cruelest death, or was it the reviler’s reviling?

ختمت بموتك نكبة وتواصلت

أخرى وراء الموت ذات غرائب

One calamity ended with your death, and there followed

Another beyond death, full of strange things.

الحول بعد الحول مر وللردى

حوليك ترديد الصدى المتجاوب

Year after year has passed, and death still has

Around you its answering, repeated echo.

لولا تنزلت البراءة من عل

ما رد عنك القبر غيبة غائب

Had innocence not descended from on high,

The grave would not have shielded you from slander in your absence.

لولا تنزلت البراءة من عل

ما رد عنك القبر غيبة غائب

Had innocence not descended from on high,

The grave would not have shielded you from slander in your absence.

هبطت إليك فطهرت ذكراك من

رمي الوشاة نقاءها بشواءب

She descended to you and cleansed your memory of

The slanderers’ casting of blemishes upon its purity.

غامت عيونهم بفل قلوبهم

فإذا السماء الصحو ذات سحائب

Their eyes were clouded by their hearts’ brokenness,

And suddenly the clear sky seemed full of clouds.

تلك البراءة فلتمثل في حلى

عذراء تزهو بالجمال الخالب

Let that innocence be embodied in the adornment of

A maiden resplendent with bewitching beauty.

وعلى ضريحك فلتشيد صورة

من مرمر صاف لتلك الكاعب

And let an image be raised upon your tomb

Of pure marble, portraying that nubile maiden.

الصبح طلعتها ومعدن حسنها

عدن وتاج الرأس عقد كواكب

Dawn is her face, and the source of her beauty

Is Eden; her head’s crown is a necklace of stars.

للروح في قسماتها لطف يرى

والجسم طهر مفرغ في قالب

Her features show the soul’s delicate grace,

And her body is purity cast in a mold.

قد شارفتك فلطفت بتبسم

عذب مرارة دمعك المتساكب

She has drawn near and softened, with a smile

So sweet, the bitterness of your streaming tears.

وبأنملات كالأشعة أومأت

تنفي ظنون السوء نفي غياهب

And with fingertips like rays she gestured,

Dispelling evil suspicions as darkness is dispelled.

وبأخمص متثاقل داست على

أشباه حيات سعت وعقارب

And with a weighty sole she trod upon

Likenesses of creeping snakes and scorpions,

رمزا إلى أهل السعايات الألى

فشلوا وباؤا بالرجاء الخائب

As symbols of those malicious informers who

Failed and returned with disappointed hopes.

فإذا استتمت واستوى تمثالها

ملء العيون بحسنه المتناسب

Then, when she is complete and her statue stands

Filling the eyes with its harmonious beauty,

كن ملتقى لأشعة من لحظها

ترمى بها عن قوس أرأف حاجب

Be the meeting-place of rays from her gaze,

Shot at you from the bow of the kindest brow.

ولينقشوا لك صورة يبدو بها

ما كان من عجب بشأنك عاجب

And let them carve for you an image revealing

The astonishing wonder of what befell you.

نقشا يلان له الصفاوية ترى

في شكل مظلوم أسيف شاحب

An engraving that softens even stone; you are seen

In the form of a wronged man, sorrowful and pale.

تحت الجراحات التي في جسمه

أدمى جراحات الفؤاد الذائب

Beneath the wounds upon his body

Are the bloodier wounds of his melting heart.

جاث على أقدامها بلغ الأسى

منه مبالغه وليس بغاضب

Kneeling at her feet, sorrow has reached

Its utmost depths in him, yet he is not angry.

لا عمره المفقود علة بثه

كلا ولا نعمي الثراء الذاهب

His lost life is not the cause of his anguish,

No, nor the blessings of vanished wealth,

بل جور قوم كان فيهم عزة

للمستعز وغنية للطالب

But the injustice of people among whom he was a strength

For those seeking strength, and sufficiency for those in need.

أدروه ما لم يدر قبل مماته

من صد أحباب وبعد أقارب

They taught him what he had not known before his death:

The estrangement of loved ones and the distance of kin.

لم يكفهم إن مات حتى عكروا

بغبارهم جو الشهاب الغارب

His death did not suffice them; they even clouded

With their dust the sky of the setting shooting star.

وأشد في التنكيل من كأس الأذى

وضع القذى في كأسه للشارب

And harsher in torment than a cup of pain

Is putting grit into the drinker’s cup.

ما الوحش إن غال الرميم بقبح من

قال النميم لنهش عرض الغائب

A beast that ravages decaying remains is not as vile as one

Who utters slander to tear at an absent person’s honor.

فاظنن بمن يغتاب مقتولا وقد

أعيا فما يسطيع نبسة عاقب

Consider, then, one who backbites a slain man who has

Grown powerless, unable to utter a word in reply.

واظنن بما هو فوق ذاك نكاية

من جفوة الأدنى وغدر الصاحب

And consider what is still more hurtful than that:

The coldness of closest kin and a companion’s betrayal.

جأروا وما أخفوه تحت نحيبهم

جعل المصيبة فوق ندب النادب

They cried aloud, but what they hid beneath their sobbing

Made the calamity greater than any mourner’s lament.

هذا هو الرسم الخليق بأن يرى

في ظهر قبرك ماثلا للراقب

This is the image fit to be seen

Standing on the back of your tomb for the observer.

في صمته الأبدي أبلغ واعظ

لألى النهى بلسان أفصح خاطب

In its eternal silence, the most eloquent preacher

To discerning minds, in the tongue of the finest orator.

توفيق نم وزر الحسود مؤرقا

ما عاش موكولا لهم ناصب

Tawfiq, sleep, and visit the envier in his sleeplessness,

As long as he lives, given over to exhausting care.

للموت روح زيد عنك هنيهة

في شبه حلم مثقل بمتاعب

Death has a repose, withheld from you a little while,

In the likeness of a dream weighed down with troubles.

ذادوه عنك فبت أقلق من ثوى

حيث القرار يكون أمن الهائب

They drove it from you, so you became the most restless of those who rest

Where repose should mean safety for the fearful.

لكن عدلا لا يني متعقبا

للظلم بين مصابر ومعاقب

But justice, never ceasing its pursuit

Of injustice, now patiently resisting, now punishing,

كشف اللثام عن الحقيقة فانجلت

تعدي الضياء على الظلام الهارب

Unveiled the truth, and it shone forth,

Aiding the light against the fleeing darkness.

الناهشو الأعراض في خسر وإن

لم تتصم أعراضهم بمثالب

Those who tear at others’ honor are losers, even if

Their own honor is unstained by faults.

كيف الوشاة وقد رموك بما بهم

من منقصات جمة ومعايب

What, then, of the slanderers, who accused you of their own

Countless shortcomings and defects?

حسدوك لم يعفوا أخاك وإنما

فعلوا لحرص في الطبائع غالب

They envied you and did not spare your brother; they acted only

From a greed that prevails in their natures.

فالمحمدات وأنتما في جانب

والمخزيات ورهطهم في جانب

Praiseworthy qualities and you two stand on one side,

And shameful qualities and their clan on the other.

ماذا تركت من المقام لشحهم

تلقاء سيب كالغمام الصائب

What standing did you leave for their stinginess

Before a bounty like rain-pouring clouds?

ولسوء مسعاهم وقلة كسبه

في جنب مسعاك الجميل الكاسب

And for their ill endeavors and meager gains,

Beside your fair and fruitful endeavor?

قد باعدوا الخطوات في طلب العلى

فتقاصروا عن خطوك المتقارب

They lengthened their strides in pursuit of the heights,

Yet fell short of your closely spaced steps.

وهداك دونهم السبيل إلى الذي

لم يبصروه نور فكر ثاقب

And, unlike them, you were guided along the road toward what

They never saw, by the light of piercing thought.

أن يقتضوك شمائل لم تؤتها

فمطالب الباغين شر مطالب

That they should demand qualities never bestowed on you—

The demands of aggressors are the worst demands.

الناس إما حاسب أو محرز

جاها يصرف فيه ذهن الحاسب

People are either accountants, or men who attain

Standing and employ an accountant’s mind in its service.

وأخو المآثر هل يقلل مجده

أن لا يكون بعالم أو كاتب

Does a man of noble deeds lose any glory

By not being a scholar or a writer?

آليت بالحسنى ألية عارف

بعلوها عن شبهة من كاذب

I have sworn by goodness, with the oath of one who knows

Its loftiness above any suspicion cast by a liar.

ما ضار من ذم النضار وربما

كانت نقيصته بعين العائب

No one who disparages gold harms it; perhaps

Its flaw lies in the faultfinder’s eye.

هل معدن التيجان بخس حقه

إن يأب طبع أسنة وقواضب

Has the metal of crowns been denied its due

If it refuses to be forged into spearheads and cutting blades?

أدركت من كرم وهم لم يدركوا

ما للحوادث من بعيد عواقب

You understood through generosity, while they did not understand,

The far-reaching consequences of events.

الجود للمبقي على أمواله

هو أول الرأي السديد الصائب

Generosity, for one who would preserve his wealth,

Is the foremost sound and prudent counsel.

وبه يوقى العالمون تحولا

راع النهى بنذيره المتعاقب

Through it, the learned are shielded from an upheaval

Whose recurring warnings have frightened discerning minds.

هل بعد معرفة الجموع بحقها

يرتاض ساغبها لغير الساغب

After the multitudes have come to know their rights,

Will their hungry submit to those who do not hunger?

إن لم تصب من كل نعمى حظها

لم تأمن الدنيا كبار مصائب

If they do not receive their share of every blessing,

The world will not be safe from great calamities.

ادورد يا أوفى الرجال إذا دعا

في حينه داعي القيام بواجب

Edward, most faithful of men, whenever

The summons to perform a duty comes in its time,

يا محرزا بدؤوبه وبجده

أسمى مكان للمجد الدائب

You who have attained, through persistence and diligence,

The highest station of the tireless achiever,

ومذللا بذكائه ومضائه

ما لا يذلل من كؤود مصاعب

And who subdues, with intelligence and resolve,

The steep difficulties that will not be subdued.

ورموا فما ألقى الشهاب

من العنان سوى شهاب

They hurled, but none brought down the shooting star

From the clouds except another shooting star.

ما كان أغناهم وذاك

الباب للإحسان باب

How needless it was for them, when that

Door was a door to charity,

لو أنهم لاقوا ذوي الحاجات

في تلك الرحاب

Had they met those in need

Within those spacious halls.

في حكمة الدنيا وفي تصريفها

العجب العجاب

In the world’s wisdom and its workings

There is wonder beyond wonder.

قد يظفر الجانون فيها

بالكرامة والثواب

Wrongdoers may win in it

Honor and reward,

وعلى رؤوس الخائفين

الله قد يقع العقاب

While upon the heads of those who fear

God, punishment may fall.

دنيا تخالف كل تقدير

وتخلط في الحساب

A world that defies every reckoning

And confounds the accounts.

في زهرها الغرار للساري

وفي الورد السراب

In its bloom is deception for the night-traveler,

And at its watering-place, a mirage.

فتظل كل حقيقة

فيها محلا لارتياب

So every truth remains

Within it a ground for doubt.

ما كنت يا توفيق إلا

من تفديه الصحاب

You were, Tawfiq, none other than

One for whom friends would sacrifice themselves,

لشمائل مملوؤة أنسا

وأخلاق عذاب

For qualities filled with warmth,

And sweet dispositions,

وصفاء طبع لم يكدره

الزمان ولو أراب

And a purity of nature unclouded by

Time, though it stirred misgivings,

ومروءة في كل حادثة

لها داع مجاب

And a chivalry that, in every crisis,

Answered the call addressed to it.

لكن وكم لكن تقال

إذا كبا بالجد عاش

But—and how many ‘buts’ are spoken—

When he stumbles through fortune, he lives [text unclear].

حكم الذي برأ البرية

لا سؤال ولا عتاب

The judgment of Him who created all creatures:

No questioning, and no reproach.

وهو الذي تعتاض بالنعمى

لديه من العذاب

And He is the One who grants you blessings

In His presence, in place of torment.

وعليه تحقيق الرجاء

فمن رجا إلاه خاب

And fulfillment of hope rests with Him,

For whoever hopes in anyone but Him is disappointed.

إدورد عش متوافر الآلاء

مرفوع الجناب

Edward, live with blessings in abundance,

Your dignity held high,

في غبطة تصفو وبالغير

الملمة لا تثاب

In happiness that stays pure; may the reversals

That bring calamity never be your recompense.

لا بدع إن واساك أهل

القطر في ذاك المصاب

No wonder if the people of

The land console you in that calamity,

فلأنت ذاك الفرع من

أصل زكا فيه وطاب

For you are that branch of

A stock in which it flourished and grew fair,

من أسرة طهرت

خلائقها ولم توصم بعاب

Of a family pure

In character, and never branded with a fault.

ضربت بسهم في العلى

فأصاب منها ما أصاب

It shot an arrow toward the heights,

And gained from them all that it gained.

ولأنت خير بقية

منها ترجى أو تهاب

And you are the finest remnant

Of it, whether looked to in hope or held in awe.

زانتك آداب رقيقات

وأخلاق صلاب

You are adorned by gentle manners

And firm moral character,

لطف وظرف في الحديث

وفي السؤال وفي الجواب

Grace and wit in conversation,

In questions and in answers,

عزم يفل مكاره الدنيا

ويهزأ بالصعاب

A resolve that blunts the hardships of the world

And mocks difficulties,

رأي إذا أبديته في معضل

فصل الخطاب

A judgment that, when you voice it on a knotty matter,

Is the decisive word,

مجد أبى شرفا وجودا

أن يشبه بالسحاب

A glory that, in nobility and generosity, disdains

Comparison with the clouds.

يا من نعزيه ويدري

فوق ما ندري الصواب

You whom we console, who know

What is right better than we know,

وعد المهيمن بالسعادة

ليس بالوعد الكذاب

The Sovereign’s promise of happiness

Is no lying promise.

فلمن تولى رحمة

في خلده ولك احتساب

For the departed, then, mercy

In his eternal abode; for you, patience seeking divine reward.