Poem of Love and the Poet
Badr Shakir al-Sayyab expresses:
One day, a passerby asked me
About my passion and my enchanting lady
Little did she know that I am a poet,
An inspired soul that adores the purest of beauties.
And though I have a love that I do not chastise,
I am drawn to alluring eyes that mesmerize.
With a graceful figure that captivates me,
Lost behind a spirit that is consumed in dreams.
And a loyalty I cannot deny — can a branch reject the breeze?
She asked me, as the hills adorned,
With dawn and wishes that bloom vibrant.
Would that she understood I am here,
A poet in need of a muse in return.
I said, my dear sister, please don’t inquire,
I am that youth who treasures a rarity.
Chance Poem
Poet Saleh al-Shaher reveals:
By chance… how beautiful is the world with it!
The finest things come in serendipity.
That feeling, how magnificent it is,
In love, my heart beats and trembles.
The longing serenades my hearing and intoxicates me,
When it saw her, my heart played a tune.
After losing my way in the realm of love,
Love forgot my heart and sequestered it.
I adore her, and she is mine; who blames the sea for loving chance?
There’s something between us I know,
Taking confession from my heart one day.
Oh my heart, how you have tormented me!
How you resisted this passion!
My poetry does not illuminate even a moment;
No descriptor can capture your essence.
My life is not worth a second,
Yet time stood still in that instant.
Her love is a turning point in my life,
May my hope remain in this convergence!
Limitless Love Poem
According to Nizar Qabbani:
O my lady: you were the most significant woman in my history,
Before the year departs.
Now, you remain the most important woman,
Following this year’s arrival.
You are a woman I cannot measure by hours or days,
Crafted from the fruit of poetry
And forged from golden dreams.
You are a woman who resided in my body,
Even before millions of years passed!
Poem of the Most Beautiful Love
Mohammad Darwish portrays:
We are two lovers, until the moon finds repose,
We know that embraces and kisses are the food of romantic nights,
And that dawn calls to my footsteps to carry on
On the path to a new day.
We are friends; walk beside me, hand in hand,
Together we create tales and melodies.
Why ponder where this road leads us?
And where shall we gather our steps?
It suffices that together, you and I journey,
Forever united.
Poem That Disheartens Me in Loving Abdah
Bashar ibn Burd observes:
It disheartens me to love a tribe in which
Their hearts contradict my own.
I said, let my heart choose that which it desires,
For the heart sees not with the eye,
And what the eyes cannot behold in love’s domain.
The ears hear not more than the heart’s intentions.
What is beauty but that which evokes youth,
Binding the essence of love and the ardent lover.
A Short Love Letter
Nizar Qabbani writes:
My beloved, I have much to convey,
There is so much I need to share.
How dear you are to me, where do I begin?
Every aspect of you is royal.
You, who crafted alphabets,
In which they spun silks of eloquence.
These are my songs, and this is I,
Enclosed within this little book.
Tomorrow, when you flip through its pages,
And a lamp yearns and sings in whispers.
Letters thrive with longing,
And soon, spaces might take flight.
Please do not say: oh, this young man
Tells of paths and streams, flowers and tulips,
So I can meander through the world, as I walk.
And whatever he said, no star
Is extinguished without the fragrance of my being.
Tomorrow, people will see me in his poems,
With wine in hand and brief verses.
Cast aside tales that will not outlive our love,
What would earth become without us?
If your eyes had never sparkled, what would it be?
Another Love Poem
Ghada Al-Samman shares:
I invented your love so that I would not stand beneath the rain without an umbrella.
I forged love letters from you!
I created love as one sings alone in the dark,
Unfearing.
When we love, our hearts teem with shadows,
Memory bathes in perfume, tears, and the scent of apples.
In love, we yearn in the café’s embrace,
Past echoes float down the street before us, and we shower them with jasmine,
Forgetting the clamor of street vendors with microphones,
The wails of police cars, ambulances, weddings,
And funerals.
I will not arrange my dead in the cave of my depths, adorned with all their medals,
I will not describe them as soldiers fallen in sorrow’s fracture,
Nor will I sit to write them with the hand of shadows,
Rather, I will love you and will not fail in inventing this love!
I Love You as Souls Find Their Persistence
According to Emad al-Din al-Isbahani:
I love you like souls that continue to exist,
And I long for you like the thirsty seek roses.
I have wandered from you while my heart remains unchanged,
Patient through trials, anchored in longing.
If you seek to betray me, I remain faithful,
And if you betray your promise, I uphold my oath.
We have descended into the realm of mortality, and my fate,
Is your healing embrace and your glorious meeting.
I will perish, yet my affection for you will never decay,
And in solitude, it will comfort me if I die.
A Love Poem in the Desert
Ibrahim Nagi declares:
I love you as long as I live, and you are my sufficient reason.
Experience a heart maybe unlike mine,
Alas, for the desert of my years,
Withheld rain ever since you departed.
My days are but mirages,
And my nights woven with deception and lies.
In my ears, from your lips, echo accusations,
Whenever I lie down in repose.
And those caravans of time come rushing,
Passing by like clouds after clouds.
Grim faces do not shine with your beauty,
Yet I never perceived dawn’s light upon you.
And if fortune’s eyes close upon us,
Unknowingly, I found myself beside your essence,
Visions of love I cannot extinguish,
For my heart kindles a flame for you.
Justice from an Unjust Love
Ibn Al-Qaysarani reflects:
From the justice of an unjust love,
The love wherein the adversary is judge.
I never knew what passion was
Until I was afflicted without mercy.
A heart of stone sleeps in
Luxurious dreams while I wander aimlessly.
Among wonders, the vigilant see
A wakeful soul imprisoned in slumber.
O sharp edge! Have you not had enough
Of what lurks in your eyes?
They reproached you, and I am without
Ears to heed their admonishments.
The envy of the envious against your support
Of the illustrious Amr ibn Al-Ghanem.
For Your Eyes, What the Heart Faces and Endures
Al-Mutanabbi articulates:
For your eyes, my heart feels and has felt,
And for love, what is left of me and what endures.
And I was never one who let love in,
Yet one who sees your eyelashes goes into enamor.
In the balance of contentment and wrath,
Of closeness and distance,
There is a space for the tears of the glistening lash.
Sweetest love is what hesitates in reunion’s embrace,
And in estrangement, it faces the universe with hope and fear.
O Thuria, When You Return to the Meadow
Wadi’ Akeel muses:
O Thuria, when you return to the meadow,
Please do not inquire the warblers about us,
They are not the same as we knew them,
Chanting for us as we sang together.
These warblers forgot us when
They found us unsuitable for their melodies.
Chirping for nothing strange,
A language foreign in essence and tune.
O Thuria, the meadow has changed, the landscape,
It holds no semblance of what we once knew.
What do I care for the grove if it bears no Arab songbird?
Gone are we, as the heart feels its essence.
That is a time past; do not recall it,
May God bless our bond on the day we were.
Representative of our hopes, fulfilled by your reception of our greeting.
The Land of Shurab is as Aromatic as Amber
According to Antara ibn Shaddad:
The land of Shurab is as fragrant as amber,
And its breeze wafts with a scent drenched in musk.
Its domes hold bright moons,
From every enchanting gaze with a wistful shine.
O Abla, your love steals our hearts,
And our minds too, so please soften; do not forsake me.
O Abla, were it not for the sight of you,
I would not have encountered peril and mismatched moments.
How often have I faced peril?
Today, the sun bore down in its zenith,
While the people flitted between the lead and trailing.
They clamored, and I called out to them, gathering close,
And approached me was the commander of that battalion.
For Whom, I Spotted a Landmark That Moved Me
Imru` al-Qais reflects:
To whom, I saw a landmark that saddened me,
Like a precise line within Yeman’s thicket.
Homes of Hind and the ribbons that once bound us,
We lived nights in delight amidst exchange.
Nights when passion calls me, and I heed its call,
And the eyes of my beloved beckon me near.
But if I find myself troubled this eve,
Oh, how well a frightened one would unsheathe a sword.
And if I find myself burdened at night,
For a well-fed maid, I shall string my words.
Having a poet’s vision, a tune rises above,
A rhythm which becomes eternal with the hands.
And if I find myself troubled this eve,
For a maiden who witnessed the trembling at the zaman’s wound.
And We Embraced; Say What You Will
Ibn Hamoyya warns:
And we embraced; say what you will,
In water and wine.
And we reproached each other; say what you will,
In grace and allure.
Then when the night receded and dawn broke,
He said, “You are under watch —
Your eyes observe,” I said, “Indeed, they observe.”
He also mentions:
In your love, I forsook my parents,
Seeking comfort in others while my share is sorrow.
Oh, how unjust is love; how can you not treat me fairly?
Alone, you indulge in love, never sharing it with me!
My Heart Left My Beloved, Not Out of Boredom
Ibn Sana’a al-Malik recounts:
I parted from my heart’s beloved, not out of weariness,
But for a transgression that demanded forsaking.
He sought to have a partner in this affection between us,
Yet my heart’s faith has forbidden me from disloyalty.
And despite the aftermath of my revelry,
The scent of musk lingers on my spirit.
My lover—the thread of my bond in longing,
Woe unto me! The restlessness of this bond lingers still.