1. With a body worn down by effort
And a soul whose purpose could not be matched

2. The Maronites were content with what they attained
And you were content after attaining what you attained

3. I fear pride for you, were it not for
The openness on your face denoting humility and asceticism

4. For you are the one who combines gentleness with glory
How excellent is gentleness combined with glory

5. I am not one who inflates egos
Whose rivalry or praise incites them

6. Nor am I, in counting traits, a warrior
For those are wishes where effort stops

7. But they are confidential whispers of your first children
Who relied on the side of your glory, fortified

8. The days of distance have passed for them so do not neglect
Hearts, no matter how many beats of passion they lost

9. Nights they spent, you do not know, in slumber
Or if insomnia tortured them

10. If you look at them yearning for the shores
With a sea of tears of longing flooding in them

11. They follow the Patriarch’s journey humbly
Hopes take his path, delegation after delegation

12. Give glad tidings of your arrival in Rome
On the wing of bliss, accompanied by fortune

13. You descended where religion pulsates joyfully
In the shade of an Imam no peer rivals

14. In the shade of the world’s father, Peter’s successor
To live happily while time is his servant

15. At his door glory bows its head
And at the dust of his feet devotion is placed

16. So your meeting was the joy of the East
And your discourse was all affection

17. How excellent with a stronghold for religion
Where you stayed so security and goodness came, and sorrow departed

18. For us, the lightning every day has tidings
That gladden the white flags and spears

19. You emerged to Abdul Hamid unique
With a necklace of loyalty, excellent is that necklace

20. You rose where might’s crescent shone
At the rise of a king circled by blissful stars

21. With a ruler whose glory is not faulted
And no path besides his aims is blocked

22. Your wisdom from him is bedecked with a medal
Adorning the best chest where no rancor trod

23. It is the greatest blessing none has won
Other than the elite, if they were counted

24. You still are lofty in the gaze of the sublime
Obligated to you are the glorious, and the diligent serves you

25. Patriarch of the East, your journey is congratulated
And tidings through it give the East joy

26. You returned with glory whose shining moon
Vanquished the musk of speeches and rivalry

27. So for poetry today because of you a quivering
And for prose, a garden where praise is a rose