لهف قلبي على أفول الشهاب

تحفة القوم نزهة الأصحابِ

My heart aches at the setting of Shihab, the shooting star,

the people's treasure, the companions' delight.

كان في مطلع البلاغة يسرى

فتوارى من الثرى بحجابِ

He traveled by night where eloquence rises,

then vanished behind a veil of earth.

فقدت بره أيامي المعاني

ويتامى جواهر الآدابِ

The widowed meanings have lost his kindness,

and the orphaned jewels of letters.

هطلت أدمع السحاب عليه

وقليل فيه دموع السحابِ

The clouds' tears poured down upon him,

and the clouds' tears are too few for him.

وذوو الجمع أصبحوا حين ولى

كلهم جامعا بلا محرابِ

And those of the gathering became, when he departed,

all of them, a mosque without a prayer niche.

ربع بلواي آهل منذ أخلى

كتبي من سؤاله والجوابِ

My affliction's abode has been peopled since he emptied

my books of his questions and answers.

يا شهاباً طلوعه في سما الفضل

ولكن أفوله في الترابِ

O Shihab, whose rising is in the sky of excellence,

and yet whose setting is in the dust.

لك فيما ألفت تذكرة مما

انتقى حسن دره أولو الألبابِ

Your memorial is in what you composed, from which

the discerning have chosen fine pearls:

روضة أينعت بفاكهة من

حسن لفظ كثيرة وشرابِ

a garden ripe with fruit of

fine expression in abundance, and drink.

فسقى تربها الرباب لتهتز

وتربو على سماع الربابِ

So may the clouds water its soil, that it may sway

and grow to the sound of the rabab.

ورأى كسره فقابله الله

تعالى بالجبر يوم الحسابِ

And may God see his brokenness and requite him—

exalted be He—with restoration on the Day of Reckoning.