Poem: I Love You
In his poem “I Love You,” the poet Nizar Qabbani expresses:
I love you… until my extinguishment.
With eyes as vast as the sky,
Until I fade, vein by vein,
Into depth like a chestnut’s weave.
Until I feel that you are part of me,
And a portion of my thoughts… a part of my blood.
I love you… in a slumber that won’t awaken.
I am thirst that cannot be quenched.
I am the slackness in the folds of a shirt,
Understanding through its shakes my pride.
I – the mercy of your eyes – am you. We are both
The spring of spring… the gift of gifts.
I love you… do not ask for any claims,
I have wounded the suns with my assertions.
If I love you… it is because I love my soul,
For we embody the song… and the echo of the song…
Poem: I Love You, I Love You, and More to Come
- In “I Love You, I Love You, and More to Come,” Nizar Qabbani remarks:
Your voice is a Persian carpet…
Your eyes are like Damascene doves…
Flying between the walls…
And my heart travels like a dove over the waters of your hands,
Taking a nap under the shadow of the bracelet…
And I love you…
But I fear becoming entangled in you,
I fear losing myself in you,
I fear becoming you,
For experience has taught me to avoid the love of women,
And the waves of the seas…
I do not debate your love… it is my day,
And I do not question the sun of the day.
I do not debate your love…
It decides when it will come… and when it will leave…
It determines the time for conversation, and the shape of it…
Let me pour you some tea,
You are fantastically beautiful this morning,
Your voice is a beautiful pattern on a Moroccan dress
And your necklace plays like a child under the mirrors…
And drinks water from the lip of the vase.
Let me serve you tea, did I mention I love you?
Did I say I am happy you came…
And that your presence brings joy, like a poem’s arrival
And like the arrival of boats, and distant memories…
Let me translate some words from the benches as they welcome you…
Let me add a new letter…
To the letters of the alphabet…
Let me contradict myself a bit
And unify love between civilization and barbarism…
– Did you like the tea?
– Would you like some milk?
– Will you, as always, just have a piece of sugar?
– As for me, I prefer your face without sugar…
I repeat for the thousandth time that I love you…
How do you want me to explain the inexplicable?
And how do you expect me to measure the size of my sorrow?
And my sadness is like a child… growing more beautiful each day…
Let me say in all languages that you know and don’t know…
I love you…
Let me search for vocabulary…
That matches my yearning for you…
Let me think about you…
And long for you…
And cry, and laugh because of you…
And erase the distance between imagination and certainty…
Let me call out to you, with every letter of the call…
Maybe if your name resonates from my lips, you will be born.
Let me establish a state of love…
Where you are the queen…
And I become the greatest lover among its people…
Let me lead a revolution…
To solidify the reign of your eyes among the masses,
Let me… change the face of civilization through love…
You are civilization… you are the heritage formed in the earth’s core
For thousands of years…
I love you…
How do you want me to prove that your presence in the universe,
Is like the presence of water,
And like the presence of trees
And that you are a sunflower…
And an oasis of palm trees…
And a song that sailed from a string…
Let me tell you in silence…
When words grow short for what I am suffering…
And when speaking turns into a plot that entangles me.
And the poem becomes a vessel of stone…
Let me…
Tell you what lies between myself and me…
And between the lashes of my eyes, and yours…
Let me…
Speak to you in symbols, if you do not trust the moonlight…
Let me tell you through lightning…
Or with the spray of rain…
Let me present to the sea the title of your eyes…
If you accept my invitation to travel…
Why do I love you?
For the ship in the sea forgets how the water embraced it…
It does not remember how it became dizzy…
Why do I love you?
For the bullet in flesh does not question whence it came…
Nor does it offer any apologies…
Why do I love you… do not ask me…
For I have no choice… nor do you…
Poem: Love Does Not Stop at the Red Light
In “Love Does Not Stop at the Red Light,” the poet Nizar Qabbani states:
This is my fortieth book… and I am still
Crawling like a small student… in your love.
This is my fortieth book…
And despite all my cleverness… and my skill,
I must devise a language that suits you, my beloved…
I must create a language worthy of your stature.
I flew for thousands of years… and never reached your heights.
I brought crowns of kings…
Yet did not win your approval.
I climbed above the alphabet just to see you…
O you who stitch my poems in dress!
Is it possible, between poem and poem,
To see you??…
Poem: Boundless Love
In “Boundless Love,” the poet Nizar Qabbani writes:
1
O my lady:
You were the most important woman in my history
Before the year departed.
You are now… the most significant woman
After this year’s birth…
You are a woman I do not measure with hours or days.
You are a woman…
Crafted from the fruit of poetry…
And the gold of dreams…
You are a woman… who had taken residence in my body
Before millions of years.
2
O my lady:
Woven from cotton and clouds.
O downpour of rubies…
O marble forests…
You who swims like fish in the waters of my heart…
And dwells in my eyes like a flock of doves.
Nothing will change in my affection…
In my feelings…
In my consciousness… in my belief…
For I will remain faithful to Islam…
3
O my lady:
Do not concern yourself with the rhythm of time and the names of years.
You are a woman who remains a woman at all times.
I will love you…
Upon entering the twenty-first century…
And upon entering the twenty-fifth century…
And upon entering the twenty-ninth century…
I will love you…
When the oceans dry up…
And the forests burn…
4
O my lady:
You are the essence of all poetry…
And the flower of all freedoms.
It suffices that I spell your name…
To become the king of poetry…
And the pharaoh of words…
It is sufficient for a woman like you to love me…
To engrave my name in the annals of history…
And to raise flags for me…
5
O my lady:
Do not flutter like a bird in festive times.
Nothing about me will change.
The river of love will not cease to flow.
The heartbeat will not stop its rhythm.
The flight of poetry will not halt.
When love is vast…
And the beloved is the moon…
This love will not transform
Into a bundle of straw consumed by flames…
6
O my lady:
Nothing fills my eyes
Not the lights…
Nor the decorations…
Nor the bells of the feast…
Nor the Christmas tree.
The street means nothing to me.
The tavern means nothing to me.
No words written on holiday cards mean anything to me.
7
O my lady:
I do not remember anything but your voice
When the bells of Sundays ring.
I do not remember anything but your fragrance
When I sleep on the herbs’ papers.
I do not recall anything but your face…
As snow drifts upon my clothes…
And I hear the crackling of the twigs…
8
What delights me, O my lady,
Is to curl up like a frightened bird
Among the gardens of lashes…
9
What amazes me, O my lady,
Is for you to gift me a pen from the ink pens…
I embrace it…
And sleep as blissfully as children…
Poem: Love, My Beloved
- In “Love, My Beloved,” poet Nizar Qabbani writes:
Love, my beloved
Is a beautiful poem written on the moon.
Love is sketched on all the leaves of the trees.
Love is inscribed on the feathers of the birds
And the drops of rain.
Yet, any woman in my country
If she loves a man,
Is pelted with fifty stones.