Poems of Love
Poems of love consist of words crafted by a poet’s imagination, arranged in specific rhymes and meters. These verses reflect the profound feelings of love that the poet experiences within themselves. Many poets have written beautifully about love, expressing their deep affection and longing for their beloved. Here, we present some of the most beautiful love poems by various poets and their masterpieces.
I Love You Until the Sky Rises
Nizar Qabbani, whose full name is Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani, hails from a Syrian family and is renowned for his deep love of Arabic literature. He frequently composed poetry about love, passion, and admiration, which led to him being dubbed the “poet of women” due to his recurrent themes concerning them. Young individuals often found inspiration in Qabbani’s verses. One of his remarkable contributions to love and romance includes:
To regain my health
And the wellness of my words
I must escape the pollution
That surrounds my heart
The earth without you
Is a vast lie
And a rotten apple
Until I enter the realm of jasmine
And defend the civilization of poetry
The blueness of the sea
And the greenery of the forests
I want to love you
Until I am assured
You are still well
You are still well
And the fish of poetry swimming in my blood
Are still well
I want to love you
Until I rid myself of my dryness
And my salinity
And the stiffness of my fingers
And my colored butterflies
And my ability to cry
I want to love you
Until I reclaim the details of our Damascene home
Room by room
Tile by tile
Pigeon by pigeon
And converse with fifty plates of jasmine
As a jeweler showcases
I want to love you, my lady
In a time when
Love has become handicapped
And language is limited
And poetry books lack vitality
Neither the trees can stand on their feet
Nor the birds can utilize their wings
Nor the stars can move
I want to love you
From the gazelles of freedom
And the last message
From the letters of lovers
And to hang the last poem
Written in Arabic
I want to love you
Before a fascist decree is issued
I want to share a cup of coffee with you
And sit with you for a few minutes
Before the secret police pull our chairs away
I want to embrace you
Before they arrest my mouth and arms
I want to cry in your hands
Before they impose a customs tax on my tears
I want to love you, my lady
And alter the calendars
And rename the months and days
And set the world’s clocks
To the rhythm of your steps
And the fragrance of your perfume
That floods the café
Before your entrance
I love you, my lady
In defense of the horse’s right
To neigh as it pleases
And the woman’s right
To choose her knight at will
And the tree’s right
To change its leaves
And the people’s right
To change their rulers
Whenever they wish
I want to love you
Until I return to Beirut its severed head
And to its sea its blue cloak
And to its poets their burnt notebooks
I want to restore
To Tchaikovsky his white swan
And to Paul Éluard the keys of Paris
And to Van Gogh a sunflower
And to Aragon the eyes of Elsa
And to Qays ibn al-Mulawwah
The combs of Layla al-Amiriyah
I want you to be my beloved
Until the poem triumphs
Over the silenced gun
The students prevail
The rose wins
And libraries overcome
The arms factories
I want to love you
Until I reclaim the things that resemble me
The trees that used to follow me
The Syrian cats that used to scratch me
The writings that used to spell me
I want to open all the drawers
Where my mother hid
Her wedding ring
And her Hejazi rosary
She has kept since the day I was born
Everything, my lady
Has entered a state of coma
The satellites
Have triumphed over the moon of poets
The electronic calculators
Have surpassed the Song of Songs
And Pablo Neruda
I want to love you, my lady
Before my heart becomes
A spare part sold at pharmacies
For heart surgeons in Cleveland
Manufacturing hearts wholesale
Like shoes
The sky, my lady, has become low
And the high clouds
Have begun to linger on asphalt
And Plato’s Republic
The Code of Hammurabi
And the commandments of the prophets
Have sunk below sea level
And the Sufi sheikhs
Have advised me to love you
Until the sky rises a little
Overcame the moon of poets
The electronic calculators
Surpassed the Song of Songs
And the verses of Lorca and Mayakovsky
And Pablo Neruda
I want to love you, my lady
Before my heart becomes
A spare part sold at pharmacies
For heart surgeons in Cleveland
Manufacturing hearts wholesale
Like shoes
The sky, my lady, has become low
And the high clouds
Have begun to linger on asphalt
And Plato’s Republic
The Code of Hammurabi
And the commandments of the prophets
And the words of poets
Have sunk below sea level
Thus, the sorcerers and astrologers
And the Sufi sheikhs advised me
To love you
Until the sky rises a little
The Book of Love
Nizar Qabbani is celebrated throughout the Arab East and West, leaving behind 35 collections and books. Among his most beautiful writings are those that delve into the emotions of the Arab human experience. In one of his poems dedicated to his wife, Bilqis, he expresses:
As long as you are my green little bird
My love
Then God is in the heavens
You ask me, my love
What distinguishes me from the sky
The difference between you and the sky
Is that when you laugh, my love
I forget the heavens
Love, my love
Is a beautiful poem written on the moon
Love is drawn on all the leaves of trees
Love is engraved on
The feathers of birds and raindrops
But which woman in my country
If she loves a man
Is pelted with fifty stones
When I fell in love
I changed
Changed the realm of the divine
Now the twilight sleeps in my coat
And the sun rises from the west
Oh Lord, my heart is no longer enough
For the one I love weighs the world
Different from others
So place in my chest one
That has the capacity of the entire world
You still ask me about my birthday
Then note that which you do not know
The date of your love for me is my birthday
If the genie were to emerge from its lamp
And say to me “Here I am”
“You have a minute”
“Choose whatever you want”
From the finest rubies and emeralds
I would choose your eyes without hesitation
Those dark-eyed ones
Those wide-awake, rain-filled eyes
I never ask my Lord
For more than two things
To preserve those eyes
And to add two days to my life
So I may write poetry
For these two pearls
If you were, my friend
At my level of insanity
I would throw away your jewels
And sell what you have of bracelets
And sleep in your eyes
Count on your fingers, what follows
First, my love, is you
Secondly, my love, is you
Thirdly, my love, is you
And fourthly, fifthly
Sixth, seventh, eighth
Ninth, and tenth, my love, is you
Love Without Limits
Nizar Qabbani was born in the Minaret of Shuhada in Damascus. He began his artistic journey at a young age, initially engaging in visual arts before transitioning to poetry. As he grew older, he became globally recognized for his love and romantic poetry. One of his heartfelt poems for women in love asserts:
Oh my lady
You were the most important woman in my history
Before the year ended
You are now the most important woman
After the birth of this year
You are a woman I do not count in hours or days
You are a woman
Made of the fruit of poetry
And the gold of dreams
You are a woman who dwelled in my body
For millions of years
Oh my lady
Woven from cotton and clouds
Oh rains of rubies
Oh rivers of Nahawand
Oh marble forests
You who swim like fish in the waters of my heart
And dwell in my eyes like a flock of doves
No change will occur in my feelings
In my sensations
In my emotion or my belief
For I will always adhere to Islam
Oh my lady
Do not concern yourself with the passage 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
And I will love you
Until the seas dry up
And the forests burn
Oh my lady
You are the essence of all poetry
The flower of all freedoms
It suffices for me to spell your name
To become the king of poetry
And the Pharaoh of words
It suffices that a woman like you loves me
For me to enter the historical books
And for the flags to be raised in my name
Three Surprises for a Romantic Woman
In the 1950s, Nizar Qabbani fell in love with Kolet Khoury, the granddaughter of a former Syrian prime minister and daughter of Suhail Khoury. This occurred after her marriage to a Spanish man; however, Kolet Khoury expressed her love for Nizar in her first novel, “Days With Him,” where he was featured as the central character. One of Qabbani’s romantic masterpieces includes:
You will be surprised, my lady, if you learn
That I am unaware of the definition of love
And you will be greatly saddened when you know
That the poet is not an oracle of the unseen
I am the last man in the world
To predict the states of the heart
My lady
When I love you
I do not need the definite article
I would vanish if I tried
And can the sun enter through a hole?
If you have a definition of poetry
I hold a definition of love
You will be surprised, my lady, if you learn
That I am very naïve in interpreting
If I have succeeded in writing love
Then what good is theorizing?
Can anyone believe that the king of love and the hunter of words
Is the weakest in every arena?
That he does not know how to get soaked by the rains of longing
And why Hind leads us into the world of poetry
But does not introduce us to Dhad?
Can anyone believe that the scholar of love and its reference
Is unable to interpret the verses?
You will be surprised, my lady, if you learn
That I do not care about grades
And that I am a man not intimidated by the repetition of years
And you will be even more surprised
When you learn that despite my gray hair and experience
I have not graduated from the University of Love
I am a student, my lady
I am your student, my lady
And I will remain a scholar
Until my Lord permits
I will always be a bird
Learning in the school of dreams