1. Since my youth I have yearned to embrace the tender branch,
And dreamed of kissing the soft cheek in the cradle of my adolescence.

2. I prayed with lovers in the mosque of passion,
As imam leading my abstinence in love and chastity.

3. I preferred the one who elevated me in my prime
Over my glory, status, and loftiness.

4. I risked myself alone to meet charming rogues
Who continued to fight me with my soul and my skull.

5. I flung myself into deadly abysses
Where the cup of misguidance tasted sweet without my sobriety.

6. With patience came triumph and victory, and there passed
The nights of the sentinel who had been tempted to kill me.

7. And I won a promise from my Sulayma, and indeed
I am confident that it is a promise of honor, not betrayal.

8. It was not her doctrine in love to turn away from my heart
Which inclined along its path away from my affection,

9. But rather she was prevented from keeping faith
By my praising the best of religion in the best state—

10. To whom God gave, in the breast of Tunis,
A noble heart to manage the affairs of the kingdom with resolve

11. And support its sultan’s authority—he who is truthful and sublime, sanctuary of humankind,
Successor to the Prophet’s descendants, inherited from his father and noble ancestors,

12. Protector of the sanctity of his homelands with valor,
Bringing low the tyrant, hard of will,

13. And here he is resurrecting, through it, every institution
Of Idris, its patron, the imam of imams,

14. And appointing to this breast, in the shade of his justice,
The direct execution of judgments among the people—

15. So he took up the duties and governed it
As his patron desired, with wisdom and resolve.

16. And how could it not be so when he is deserving, due to his superiority,
To outstrip all peers in every faith,

17. And, for what he was granted of knowledge, intelligence,
And support of God’s religion, the highest rank?

18. So O you who surpassed all creation in virtues
Beyond enumeration, for they are too many to count,

19. O you through whom the sun of knowledge dawned
And illuminated the cosmos in every place,

20. O scholar whose benefit encompassed
All of God's servants universally,

21. O you through whom the hand of leadership reached
Above the celestial spheres, beyond the qualified,

22. O you whom the assemblies constantly praise
For every servant owes clear duties,

23. O you who, when called, answers those who come to you
With resolve to repel affliction,

24. O you whom even the fierce lion fears when
He transgresses against one under your protection,

25. O you who are the rain from which, without asking,
The prosperous and distressed alike drink their fill,

26. Congratulations for what your Lord conferred on you—
For you alone are worthy of it, beyond doubt and question.

27. The hearts of all beings are treasure chests
Filled with sincere love for you at all times.

28. Answer my praise of you, when it reaches you,
With something to adorn it in robes of joy.

29. It comes hastening from a distant land
Hurriedly to convey my greetings to you,

30. And to inform your sublimity that I
Yearn for the partisans of the noblest community,

31. And that you, my patron, are the first to stand
For prescribed, recommended, and voluntary worship and tradition.

32. Your justice guides its light to every believer
To thank you, enjoined before encountering you.

33. So live long, commanding in the kingdom of Tunis, for as long
As complete cycles rise in the lofty heavens,

34. And for as long as Majdi’s odes at their openings
Proclaim, “Since my youth I have yearned to embrace the tender branch.”