هَلَكَ عَنِّى سُلْطَـٰنِيَهْ
Halaka 'annee sultaaniyah
(ہائے) میری سلطنت خاک میں مل گئی
my authority has vanished from me.”
Sulṭān covers both power over people and the proof that backs a claim, and the loss described here can be heard either way. The final hāʾ on sulṭāniyah is the pause-hāʾ, a letter written to be stopped on, and it closes four words running through this one speech: kitābiyah, ḥisābiyah, māliyah, sulṭāniyah. Each sentence breaks off at the same falling sound, which is how the lament is heard as well as read.