"And the leg was folded over the leg"

These lines are technically grounded in the scene of death and its impact on the human being. They then move from the particularity of a specific man’s death to a meditation on the transience of the world, concluding with resurrection and eternity. The poem relies more on rhyme and rhythm than on strict adherence to the classical Khaleeji meter.

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The man slept with a contented eye,

Then awoke to pray the Fajr prayer, his heart that of a lover and a yearner.

His head bowed, and his soul limped toward the horizons.

His body settled, and a leg wrapped around another leg.

He became a body carried on wooden planks upon the necks of the living.

And tears flowed from the eyelids into the depths.

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The people rushed, drunk with bewilderment,

They rose to him, stripped him of the garments of life, and prayed over him.

The man returned, dragging his shroud toward his parents.

He found the dead lined up in rows before him.

The grave took the place of the house; no companions, no weddings.

Among the rocks he dwells; no perception, no sensation.

The lodging of the earth is spacious, it accommodates the servant and the head.

It accommodates all the kings of the earth, no veils, no guards.

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As for the sun of this world, it rises every morning,

And the moon remains the companion of the night’s conversation and cups.

The child runs, inspiring hope in souls,

While the old man mutters at times with his prayer beads,

And at other times reads the verses of remembrance from the tablets.

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The walls of the house or the address have not changed,

The face of the earth or the ages have not altered.

Men, or two men, have filled the place of the man.

That is the world, and this universe is a thread of smoke.

The great-grandfather came to it before now,

And the grandchildren have forgotten him; no remembrance, no kindness.

And tomorrow the books of the living will be rolled up; no postponement, no forgetting.

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This is your fate, O son of the world, this is your fate, O son of death.

So save yourself before the journey and before the loss.

Before the setting of the sun, the loss of speech, and the silencing of the voice.

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Indeed, death, like all of God’s creation, dies,

And there will be another life in the Kingdom.

In it is victory, and in it are dwellings of carnelian.

This is God’s covenant with us, this is a fate that does not pass.

We live eternally after the toil in the appointed time.

God has described the gardens of eternity, so exalted is the describer and the described.