The Most Beautiful Poems of Reproach by Nizar Qabbani.

Hypocrisy

Enough with the hypocrisy!

What purpose does this countless embrace serve?

When we have reached the end

And all the stories we once told

Are mere hypocrisy…

Hypocrisy…

Enough!

It is already one o’clock…

Where is the bag? Can you hear me? Where did you hide the bag?

Indeed, it announces one o’clock…

And we are chewing on monotonous tales

With no purpose…

Let us admit now that we have failed

And what remains of us

Is only vacant and wandering eyes

Where light has diminished

And the hollows of our empty eyes

Have turned to stone…

Enough!

We stare at one another in ignorance

And speak of truth and friendship

Claiming that the heavens

Have conspired against us…

While with both hands

We buried loyalty

And sold our consciences to the winter…

Now we sit like companions

Yet we are neither lovers nor friends

Revisiting our past messages…

And laughing at the false lines…

Is this hypocrisy our creation?

Without caution or emotion…

Enough with the nonsense!

Where is the bag? Where is the cloak?

The decisive moment has come

And soon the evening will fold

The chapters of our failed relationship…

Diary of a Woman

Why in our city?

Do we live love through smuggling and forgery?

Stealing our appointments through door cracks

And begging for letters

And for wandering moments?

Why in our city?

Do they hunt emotions and little birds?

Why are we mere tin?

What remains of humanity

When it becomes like tin?

Why are we dual in

Feeling and thought?

Why must we be earthly,

Grounded, fearing the sun and light?

Why do the people of our town?

Get torn apart by their contradictions?

For in their waking hours

They curse braids and skirts

Yet when night falls upon them

They embrace pictures?

I always question myself

Why can’t love exist in this world?

For everyone

All people

Like the rays of dawn?

Why can’t love be like bread and wine?

Like water in the rivers,

And like clouds, rain,

Herbs and flowers?

Isn’t love for humanity

Life within a life?

Why isn’t love in my country?

Natural:

Intertwined like lips meeting lips

And flowing,

As my hair flows on my back?

Why can’t people love easily and kindly?

Like fish in the sea

Like moons gliding in their orbits?

Why is love not essential in my country

Like a collection of poetry?

Don’t Love Me

This love…

No longer intrigues me!

So rest, and allow me some peace…

If your love is fickle

As I have seen…

Then please, don’t love me!

My love…

Is the whole world to me,

But your affection is of no concern…

The small sorrows embrace me

And pay me visits

If you do not visit me.

What you feel matters not

For my thoughts of you suffice me…

Love is…

An illusion in our minds

Like fragrance in gardens…

Your eyes…

Are born from my sorrow

What are you?

What are your eyes to me?

For your small mouth…

I have turned it in my hands

And planted it with lemon blossoms…

Even your beauty…

Does not amaze me

If it fades from time to time…

For desire opens a thousand windows

Green…

And sings to me of your eyes.

It makes no difference, my tormentor

If you loved me

Or did not love me…

You should rest from my love…

But I ask you,

Do not grant me peace!

From the Diary of a Failing Student

What is required of me?

What is precisely required of me?

I have dedicated my life

To the school of love

And through the night… I studied… and memorized…

Completing all the assignments…

Everything I could do in the chamber of love,

I have done…

Everything that I could engrave on rosewood,

I engraved…

Every letter, dot, and circle that I could draw,

I have drawn…

So why is my notebook filled with poor marks?

And why do you belittle my history…

My abilities, my art…

I still do not understand, my lady

What is required of me?

What is required of me?

To be the number one man among your men;

To be the first pioneer…

First discoverer…

And the first inhabitant…

In your poetry or the folds of your shawl…

What must I do to dive into the sea…

And lie on the warmth of your sands?

I have performed thousands of follies

To please your imagination…

I have sacrificed thousands of times

For your connection…

You who entered upon your feet

The mightiest of kingdoms…

Free me…

From my madness and your beauty…

What must I do to declare my allegiance to love?

What is required of me to be buried among the martyrs?

They have admitted me to the madhouse in the name of love…

And even now, my lady, they have not released me…

They have hanged me—in the name of poetry—so many times…

And it seems they never killed me.

They tried to uproot the rebellion from my heart and my papers…

And it seems they…

Within the heart of rebellion, my lady,

Have planted me…

You, to whom my love

Enters through the door of myths…

And drains my blood and my age…

I no longer have hobbies except

Collecting the Kuhl from the Hegaz

You scattered in every corner…

I no longer have interests except…

To extinguish the fire you ignited in the heart of mirrors…

I have no convincing answer…

When my tears question me about you…

Drink your coffee now and tell me

What is required of me?

I have thought about your smile

Since the year 2000 before the dawn…

I have run like a horse around your waist…

And when they mentioned the Nile…

I boasted about the length of your hair…

You who take me with your flowered kaftan

To the land of wonders…

You who spread beauty marks along your edges

Like stars…

I scream like a madman from my intense love…

Why, my lady, are you against talents?

I ask you to smile…

I ask you to harmonize…

You know very well…

That all my skills are at your disposal

And all my abilities are under your command.

And the fingers with which I have built worlds

Are also…

Are also…

Are also at your service…

To Remember the Rest of the Women

It’s a sin against you…

It’s a sin against you…

You have taken thousands of birds from me

And the color of the sky…

You have seized the air from my lungs

I want you…

To grant me a little time,

To remember the rest of the women…

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