Syriac Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary , Bartellī

A
(1) Here is laid (2) the gifted Syriac poet (3) the Priest Ya‛qūb Sākā. (4) He was born in the year 1864, was ordained priest in the year 1928, and died in the year 1931.
B
(1-5) (Metre of Mōr) Ya‛qūb. The man who shone in our era in the East and who greatly made the Aramaic language glorious has died! He brought forth elegant verse homilies, sprouting them up in the garden of belles-lettres, and he much triumphed in the art of composition. Ya‛qūb Sākā, venerable priest of Barṭellā, (6-10) served and cultivated the Syriac language in full fervour, teaching the Aramaic language for forty years inside Barṭellā and in the monastery—I mean of (Mār) Mattā. In the year 1864 the net of this world caught him, (11-13) and in the year 1928 he was called to the rank of priesthood. In the year 1931, in the month of Nīsōn (April), he tested the cup of death. May the Lord make him worthy of the blessed place, in the Kingdom.