Ode of Reproach
- By the poet Farouk Gouida:
I stood to hold you accountable, O Time,
Why did you withhold such tenderness?
I knew you once in fear and in a dismal night,
And from the dark despair came.. safety.
It is a sin, it is forbidden, oh my God,
If love arrives to us after its time.
Ode: A Reproach of Love for Beloveds
- By the poet Farouk Gouida:
Was it just that your love would ultimately be my demise?
How could you allow pain among lovers?!
Between an executioner.. and a vengeful wolf,
And a gang that plunders without reckoning.
While caravans of misery roam around us,
And the cries of a child pierce my nerves.
A tale of a heart, an old shaykh, immobile,
Who died crucified upon the altar.
He once screamed: “I have a single God,
The Creator of the world.. and I know my affliction.”
O Lord, you have chronicled all beings,
And in every line, a nation in its Book.
Those seated upon thrones have become savage,
And for every tyrant, a pack of wolves.
I said: Surely, God is but one Lord,
They shouted: “And you have denied the lords?”
They tore my body apart and trampled my bones,
And I saw my remains at the doors.
I could no longer find where my journey will end,
And on what land my travels will rest.
Faces have vanished.. how did they hide their secret?
The question fled.. and my answer grew scarce.
If a phantom returned after its absence,
To reveal the truths of my journey and my destination.
Yet it remains a distant, obscure shadow,
Coming to us from behind a veil.
Spring has departed.. its birds have flown away,
In autumn, my reproaches yield no results.
At the end of the journey, my image appears,
Amidst wolves with my plight and suffering.
Your face emerges behind waves of sorrow,
A sun waving in farewell to the clouds.
This is a time that betrayed me in a moment,
And has wounded my youth with its ingratitude.
I mourned my illusions and said, perhaps one day,
I will return to my wisdom and integrity.
How could I have accepted the wretchedness of a corrupt era
And the treachery of a beastly oppressor?!
Between dreams that faded, losing their enchantment,
And the shimmer of a lifetime that has become a phantom mirage.
The nights of my life aged me suddenly
In the deception of a treacherous, false dream.
All that remains is poverty to cover my shame,
And poverty is cursed in every book.
The palm groves on the shores bow down,
And in terror, the blood of their necks flows.
I never expected my end to be,
In the final stretch, tears of reproach!
And my life fades away in the paths of my city,
Between the flames of oppression and terrorism.
And the last sight on the horizon shall be,
A people rushing in a dark veil.
A homeland across the cosmos appears merely a game,
For the inheritors of the throne through lineage.
O you who have shed the blood of the motherland, gather,
And scatter as factions at the doors.
They portrayed you as a dream.. then they died in solitude,
Amidst the injustices of family and friends.
Do not be ashamed if I approach you bare,
And you see me a specter without garments.
The light of the sun fades.. it shrinks between us,
And in my eyes, it appears like a matchstick.
The wind roars.. and the stars become scarce,
And I, beyond the horizon, am the light of a shooting star.
Ode of Meeting and Parting
- By the poet Elia Abu Madi:
Patience on our separation if it pleases her.
Only the unlovely seem weary of her.
The finest union occurs after distance,
And the sun after the night is most delightful to see.
I have surrendered my weary eyes and weakened body,
For longing is a yearning that cannot be found.
Indeed, when women wrench a young man’s soul,
Only their closeness can contain and heal it.
Beware of love, for the wind is treacherous,
If it were not for our profound affection hidden within.
Purity fades, leaving only its trace,
That sometimes pains the soul and occasionally comforts it.
Countless nights have passed among us, their fairest,
Ended only as they faded into the abyss.
Those evenings I hope we will remember,
Fearing hardship but not fearing forgetfulness.
I yearn for them, fueled by nostalgia,
For Egypt and its kin.
A land, a sky whose greatness surpasses all,
Neither sky nor earth can mimic its splendor.
Its borders delicate, its sides lush,
And the fairest of lands wear frail borders.
Her pyramids tall and majestic,
Stand beside others in their grace.
Her sweet Nile, how enchanting its views,
And the sun adorns it like gold in its shelter.
Like a Kaaba for the pilgrims of mankind,
Were it not for piety, I would exclaim the builder’s greatness.
How enchanting are the maidens gliding gracefully,
Fleeing from land, they bear all the beauty.
From every angle, her smile entices us,
If we seek closeness, she lures us to stay.
And the young girl hidden from every glance,
Her veil obscures her, and my heart calls to her.
In every part of my being, she has left her mark,
And the home is bound to know better what dwells within.
Ode of Beautiful Separation
- By the poet Karim Matouq:
I do not carry old grievances,
So farewell to your losses within my veins.
Silence fell,
Allow me once more to declare the secret of our estrangement,
And the tale that crossed, adorned in cloaks of darkness.
They shouted: “Forbidden!”
I replied, “If we remain forbidden,”
A sadness begets another sorrow.
Enduring despair, a perpetual fear,
Intense suffering, deceit
And shades of melancholy in harmony.
Love stories rarely end,
With a red or white rose,
Or an olive branch and flocks of doves.
We accepted a different tale,
A beautiful separation,
That does not bow to nostalgia or memories, and embraces reproach.
We’ve created an enormous alienation,
And we prayed a prayer of estrangement;
It was a grand celebration where I was the Imam.
And we agreed..
Until this day, I do not recall that we ever concurred,
Except to immerse ourselves in drowning our dearest affection.
We came to terms with forgetfulness,
And bore a stillborn longing.
Rise..
The rubble of today calls for you to come in a coffin,
In shambles or ruins.
No breast will cradle us anymore,
Nor a hand, if it happens to brush against another,
We will lay asleep in warmth from a saga of secrets,
Cradled by peace.
Rise..
Feelings have dulled, and words have lost their sweetness.
We have chosen the violence of our disappointment,
And kept our coldness alive in our hearts,
Contracting bonds of estrangement until the world ends,
And humankind banishes us.
We clutched together..
Facing a dawn of deliverance,
We fell towards the heights,
Like two slain souls upon the horizon, eternally resting.
Ode: Indeed, My Heart Cries for the Separation from My Beloveds
By the poet Bashar ibn Burd:
Indeed, my heart aches from the separation from my beloveds,
Though I may not reveal my grief.
My tears have spilled between sorrow and patience,
And my concealment from the reproachers is a confession.