Nizar Qabbani
Nizar Qabbani, a prominent Syrian poet, is renowned for his extensive collection of poetry and several well-known verses that resonate throughout the Arab world. His works, characterized by their vivid expressions of love and admiration for women, have captivated audiences. In this article, we will explore some of the most beautiful verses of Nizar Qabbani’s poetry.
Poetry of Nizar Qabbani
He listens to me as he dances with words that are unlike any others.
He lifts me beneath his arm, planting me among the clouds.
And the black rain falls from my eyes in endless showers.
He carries me away to a rosy evening on the balconies.
I am like a child in his hands, a feather carried by the breeze.
He gifts me the sun, the summer, and a flock of years.
He tells me that I am his masterpiece and worth thousands of stars.
That I am a treasure, the most beautiful sight of all artistic canvases.
He recounts tales that bewilder me, making me forget the rhythm and steps.
Words that rewrite my history, transforming me into a woman in moments.
He builds me a palace of dreams where I only inhabit fleeting instances.
Then I return to my table, with nothing but words.
Words that are unlike any others; nothing is left with me but words.
The Most Beautiful Poems of Nizar Qabbani
I challenge those who have gazed into your eyes, my lady, before me.
They hold the sun in their palms and garlands of jasmine.
I defy everyone I have known, including the mad, children, and lost souls.
In this sea of yearning, to love you in my style, with my folly and madness.
I dare you to find a homeland as warm as my lips,
And a bed as cozy as my eyes.
I dwell in love—no kiss I have given or received,
There are no solutions or acceptance in it; read my early love letters,
You will find me always between the lines, I challenge all your lovers, my lady.
I dare them all to write you a love letter like mine,
Or to come to you, no matter their number, with words that match my own.
I defy them all to be but a drop in my ocean,
Or to extinguish their lives as I have extinguished mine in your eyes.
I dare you to find a lover like me and an era as golden as my time.
So go wherever you wish, laugh and cry, for I know you won’t find a refuge like my heart.
A Poem for Qabbani
Your love has taught me
To grieve while I have long needed, for ages,
A woman who makes me weep, a woman with whom I cry like a little bird.
A woman who gathers my fragments like shards of broken crystal.
Your love has taught me, my lady, the worst of habits.
It taught me to open my fortune’s cup a thousand times a night,
To seek the herbalist’s remedies and knock on the door of fortune tellers.
Your love has led me to wander the streets,
Chasing your face in the rain and car lights.
I pursue your shadow even in advertisements.
Your love has taught me how to roam aimlessly,
Hours spent searching for gypsy hair that every gypsy envies.
Searching for a face, for a voice that encompasses all faces and sounds.
Your love introduced me to cities of sorrow,
And before you, I had never entered them.
I never knew that tears are the essence of humanity,
That a person without sorrow is merely a memory of humanity.
Your love has taught me to act like a child,
To draw your face in chalk on the walls;
On the sails of fishermen, on bells, on crosses.
Your love has shown me how love alters the map of time.
It has taught me that when I love, the earth ceases to spin.
Your love introduced me to numerous surprises that were never anticipated.
I read children’s tales, entered the palaces of fairy tale kings.
I dreamt of marrying the Sultan’s daughter,
Whose eyes are clearer than the waters of the bays,
Whose lips are sweeter than pomegranate flowers,
I dreamed of snatching her like a knight.
I dreamed of gifting her necklaces made of pearls and coral.
Your love has taught me what delirium is,
How to let time pass without the Sultan’s daughter arriving.
Your love has shown me how to love you in everything.
In bare trees, in yellowing dry leaves,
In the rainy atmosphere, in all storms.
In the smallest café where we drink our coffee in the evenings.
Your love taught me to seek refuge in nameless hotels,
Churches without names, cafes with no names.
Your love has taught me how the night amplifies the sorrows of the strangers.
It has shown me how to see Beirut as a woman, overwhelmed with seduction,
A woman who dresses every evening in her finest clothes,
Spraying perfume on her bosom for sailors and princes.
Your love has taught me to weep without tears.
To understand how sorrow sleeps like a boy with two broken feet,
On the paths of Rowsha and Hamra.
Your love has taught me to grieve,
As I have long needed a woman to make me sad,
A woman to embrace me like a little bird,
A woman to gather my pieces like shattered crystal.
Loving Poetry by Qabbani
The world reproaches me when I love him,
As if I were the one who created love and invented it.
As if I were the one who painted it on the rosy cheeks of flowers.
As if I were the one who taught the birds to soar in the sky.
And planted it in golden wheat fields.
And dissolved it in the waters of the sea.
As if I were the one who, like the beautiful moon in the sky, hung it up.
The world reproaches me when I mention the one I love or call his name.
As if I am the love and its mother and sister.
From where I expected it, it differs from everything I have known.
Dissimilar to everything I have read or heard.
If only I had known it was a form of addiction, I would not have indulged.
If only I had known it was a door exposed to strong winds, I would not have opened it.
If only I had known it was a matchstick, I would not have ignited it.
This love is the fiercest affection I have lived.
Oh, I wish when it approached me, arms wide open, I had rejected it.
And I wish before it could kill me, I had killed it.
This love I see by night…
I see it in my dress, in my perfume, in my bracelets,
I see it painted on my hand.
I see it inscribed on my feelings.
If they had told me it was a playful noisy child, I would not have let it in.
And if it would shatter my heart’s glass, I would not have permitted it.
If they had told me it would set ablaze in minutes
And turn things upside down in moments…
And stain the walls with red and blue in moments,
I would have driven it away.
O my precious one, who has won God’s favor for me.
For when I loved him, it was the most beautiful love I ever experienced.
Oh, I wish when he came to me as a visitor, I adorned him with flowers.
And I wish when he came to me crying, I opened my doors to him and kissed him.