English
Elegy for Abu Bakr Sa'd ibn Zangi
Who will bind the broken heart again with a healing salve?
Who will pull the thorn from the weary orphan's foot?
The arrow of grief at his loss lodged so deep in people's chests
that its notch sank into their very souls.
The pen wanders about like a slaughtered bird with its head cut off,
black blood running from its beak.
The mouth of the dead still speaks in meaning,
even if it no longer has a tongue for words.
It warns: never be fooled by the world and its wealth;
one day, of necessity, it will make you leave it behind.
What good is a golden cup if the drink is poisoned?
What a pity, the treasure of eternal life, had it not held this snake.
Do not rely too much on the world's fortune lasting,
for everyone has tasted its treacherous nature.
Look at the state of this lord of faith and rule:
may the grace of God's mercy fall on his watchful soul.
The sky lifted the royal crown from his head
and set upon his grave a cap and turban of dust.
Even if base time nurtures you with honey and sugar,
it keeps no faith with a friend; do not count on it.
No more will the blossom smile in the garden of victory,
for blood now flows from the eyes of the trees.
How can the poor not grieve at his absence,
when sorrow grew greater and the one who eased their sorrow is gone?
Set your hope on a being who, when he leaves this world,
leaves good marks behind among the people.
From the tears the loved ones shed upon the carpet,
the courtyard looked like the ground on a day of rain.
All his life, with an eye toward a day like this,
he kept his midnight prayers and his prayers at dawn.
Do not think he is alone in the enclosure of earth;
his deeds are companion enough in the grave and at the resurrection.
Though his realm, command, treasure, and wealth are gone,
the mercy of the forgiving Lord remains for him.
When the day of ending deeds comes, it is the decree of eternity;
what use then is counting his prayers and his acts?
Yet a friend weeps bitterly for a friend,
even if the friend does not return for all his weeping.
A grief struck the face of the age by fate,
a burden that bent even the sky's enduring back double.
This was the same wound and sorrow that came
to the Emigrants and Helpers when the Prophet passed.
The shelter of the poor and the shield of the stranger has gone;
Lord, cover him with your forgiveness, you who conceal our faults.
Among the household of the cherubim in the holy realm,
set him down around the tent of the pure spirits.
The enemy who shouted in the crowd that when a friend dies
the world falls to ruin, his thinking was mistaken.
There was never a single tree in this garden of the kingdom
whose birds would scatter after this.
The name of Abu Bakr Sa'd ibn Zangi did not die,
for his renowned heir, Sa'd Abu Bakr, remains.
A lamp from which another lamp is lit
may go out, yet its light lives on.
The lord of time and earth, Muzaffar al-Din,
who stands firm to raise and proclaim the faith.
Great God, with glory, fortune, and every desire,
grant him a long life of many years.
By the good men, guard him from the evil eye;
by the upright, keep him safe from the crooked.
For until the center point is fixed at the origin,
the compass cannot draw its circle true.