صبرا لحكمك صبرا

يا مانح الكسر جبرا

Patience for Your judgment, patience

O Mender of breaks, mending

فما تعاظم خطب

إلا وأجزلت أجرا

For no matter how dire straits become

You always grant ample reward

أي الخطوب توازي

خطبا أتى اليوم قهرا

What distress can compare

To the distress of today's tyranny?

فيه ابتليت بفقدي

أبي فأصبحت صفرا

In it, I was tested with the loss

Of my father, and was left empty

أبكي الحنان وأبكي

بكى لأجله مرا

I cry for the affection, and I cry

Tears shed for his sake in abundance

دم الأبوة فيه

دمع البنوة أجرى

The blood of fatherhood in him

The tears of sonship streamed

أعظم لرزئه رزءا

مذ غاله الموت غدرا

I magnify his tragedy,

Since death betrayed him disloyally

ما العيش إلا هواء

قل كيف يحسب عمرا

What is life but a breeze?

Say, how can it count as age?

والحي فيها عليل

حتى إذا مات يبرا

The living in it are ill

Until, when they die, they become healthy

إما بكيت لميت

فالحي أولى وأحرى

Whether I cried for a deceased

The living are more deserving and fitting

تبكي الشمائل منه

إذ بافتقاده تعرى

You cry his qualities

Now that you are deprived of them

كمثل من قد بكينا

وسوف نبكيه دهرا

Like one we cried for

And we will cry for eternally

أبي أعز فقيد

علي في الناس طرا

My father, most precious absent

To me among all people

وفاته يوم سبت

في أول العام شهرا

His death was on Saturday

The first of the year a month

عشرون يوما تقضت

منه وخلف عشرا

Twenty days passed

Of it, leaving ten

فأشبه الأم موتا

يوما وشهرا وقبرا

So the day, month and grave

Resembled his mother's death

إذ قبرها صار شفعا

وكان قبله وترا

For her grave became a pair

When before it was impair

كلاهما في سرور

ورحمة الله تترى

Both are in bliss

And God's mercy hoped for

وكيف والجار عبد

العزيز بالفضل أدرى

And how could it not when the neighbor

Is Abdelaziz the exceedingly noble

أمسى أبي له ضيفا

وحسبه ذاك فخرا

My father became his guest last night

And that alone suffices as a glory

بشرى لضيفه بشرى

بشرى لمنجيه بشرى

Good tidings to his guest, good tidings

Good tidings to his savior, good tidings

من عترة الخرنداري

ذاك الذي كان صدرا

From the lineage of al-Kharndar

That leading figure

ورب ذا الرمس ثاني ال

أبنا وأشهر ذكرا

And Lord of the engraved

Second son and most mentioned

قد كان أطهر عرضا

وأشرف الآل قدرا

He was the most chaste and honorable

And the highest of lineage

تلو الدين مطيعا

يبدو والله برا

Next to faith, obedient

And by God, righteous

قد عاش فيها شريفا

وفي ضميره حرا

He lived nobly

And free in his conscience

تدرج الفضل فيه

حتى استتمه بدرا

Merit progressed in him

Until he perfected it fully

في دولة الناصر اسما

قل زاده الله نصرا

In the state of An-Nasir name

Say may God give him victory

أمير تونس أسنى ال

بايات شأنا وعصرا

Emir of Tunis adorned

Eras and times superbly

أعد فيه انتمائي

بالوالد اليوم برا

I renew through my father

Loyalty to him today dutifully

إن غاب شخصه عني

ما غاب واللّه فكرا

If his person is absent from me

His thoughts are not absent at all

قد كان بي ذا اعتناء

ينسر إن قلت شعرا

He cared so much about me

Delighted if I recited poetry

فعز فيه رثائي

وكان أوحش ذكرى

So my elegy brings him honor

And remembering him is most forlorn

يا زائر القبر فاقرأ

له الفواتح عشرا

O visitor of the grave recite

Ten opening chapters for him

وانثر عليه دعاء

مما تلوته زهرا

And shower on him a prayer

Of those you've read as flowers

وأنشده عني وأرخ

دنيا حمدت وأخرى

And convey from me while documenting

A world You've praised and another