Beautiful Poems by Nizar Qabbani
Among the most captivating poems by Nizar Qabbani are the following:
Poem: I Bear Witness That There Is No Woman But You
Nizar Qabbani expresses in his poem “I Bear Witness That There Is No Woman But You”:
I bear witness that there is no woman
Who mastered the game but you,
Endured my foolishness
For ten years as you did,
And survived my madness as you patiently did;
You trimmed my nails,
Organized my notebooks,
And introduced me to kindergarten,
No one but you..
I bear witness that there is no woman
Who resembles me like an oil painting
In thought and behavior but you,
In intellect and insanity but you,
In quick boredom
And swift attachment
But you..
I bear witness that there is no woman
Who has claimed my attention
Half as much as you did,
And settled within me as you did,
And freed me as you did.
I bear witness that there is no woman
Who treated me like a two-month-old child
Except for you..
And offered me small birds’ milk,
Flowers and toys,
No one but you..
I bear witness that there is no woman
Who was as generous with me like the sea,
As refined as poetry,
And pampered me like you did,
And spoiled me like you did.
I bear witness that no woman
Extended my childhood
Into my fifties.. except for you.
Poem: My Beloved Is the Law
Nizar Qabbani shares in his poem “My Beloved Is the Law”:
O woman whose voice
Blends silver with wine and rains,
And from the mirrors of her knees dawn emerges
As life prepares to set sail,
O woman in whose eyes
The sea blends with the olives,
My rose,
My star,
My crown,
Perhaps I am
A troublemaker or a free thinker,
Or mad,
If I am mad, which is possible,
You, my lady,
Are responsible for that madness.
If I am cursed, which is possible,
Then every lover without a license
In the Third World,
My lady, is cursed.
So forgive me just this once
If I stray from the law.
What can I do, my basil plant?
When every woman I loved
Has become the law.
Fida’i Publications on the Walls of Israel
Nizar Qabbani articulates in his poem “Fida’i Publications on the Walls of Israel”:
You will not turn our people into
Native Americans..
For we are here to stay..
In this land that wears
A bracelet of flowers
On its wrist.
This is our homeland..
Here we have existed since the dawn of time,
Here we have played, loved, and written poetry.
We are intertwined in its bays
Like sea grass..
We are intertwined in its history,
In its flatbread, in its olives,
In its golden wheat.
We remain woven into its sentiments,
Steadfast in its March,
Enduring in its April,
We endure like engravings on its crosses,
We remain in its blessed prophet, in its Quran..
And in the Ten Commandments..
Do not rejoice in victory…
If you kill Khalid, Amr will come,
And if you crush a rose,
The fragrance will remain,
Because Moses lost his hands
And can no longer master the art of magic,
Because Moses broke his staff
And can no longer split the seas.
For you are not like America.. and we are not like native Americans,
So you shall perish entirely
In the deserts of Egypt…
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is a new martyr
Added to the ancient account.
Fire is not, nor is the blaze
More than lanterns lighting the way
From the reeds of the forests;
We emerge to you like spirits, from the reeds of the forests.
From heaps of mail, from bus seats,
From cigarette packs, from gasoline cans, from tombstones;
From chalk, from boards, from braids of girls;
From the wood of the crosses, from incense vessels, from prayer covers;
From the pages of the Quran we come to you,
From the lines and verses…
For we are dispersed in the wind, in the water, in the plants,
And we are mixed with colors and sounds..
You shall not escape.. you shall not escape..
For every house has a gun
From the Nile to the Euphrates;
You will find no rest among us..
Every slain person among us
Dies a thousand times..