Nizar Qabbani

[shahz]

Nizar Qabbani

21 March 1923 – 30 April 1998 (born in Syria)

He was Syrian diplomat, poet and publisher.
He is one of the most revered contemporary poets in the Arab world.


Nizar Qabbani was born in the Syrian capital of Damascus to a middle class merchant family. Qabbani was raised in Mi'thnah Al-Shahm, one of the neighborhoods of Old Damascus. Qabbani studied at the national Scientific College School in Damascus between 1930 and 1941.The school was owned and run by his father's friend, Ahmad Munif al-Aidi. He later studied law at the Damascus University, which was called Syrian University until 1958. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in law in 1945.

Nizar Qabbani had one sister, Wisal; he also had three brothers: Mu'taz, Rashid, and Sabah. The latter, Sabah Qabbani, was the most famous after Nizar, becoming director of Syrian radio and TV in 1960 and Syria's ambassador to the United States in the 1980s.

Nizar Qabbani's father, Tawfiq Qabbani, was Syrian while his mother was of Turkish descent. His father had a chocolate factory; he also helped support fighters resisting the French mandate of Syria and was imprisoned many times for his views, greatly affecting the upbringing of Nizar into a revolutionary in his own right. Qabbani's great uncle, Abu Khalil Qabbani, was one of the leading innovators in Arab dramatic literature.

[shahz]

I will share here most of his poems !!

"Akrahoha" which means in translation "I hate her",is a poem of the great poet Nizar Qabbani.
Below you see a video with the poem ''Akrahoha'' from the TV Series "Nizar Qabbani" (based on his life).

English translation of the poem :Akrahoha - I hate her

I hate her, though I long for her.
And I love my hatred towards her.
I love the meanness in her eyes , and i love her Lies when she lies..
I notice her lies
Lies after lies coming out of her mouth
Artful, her eyes are of a wolf
The devil lives in her eyes
and her desires take over her mind

I doubt my doubts as she arrives
Humble and crying
If I petty her,
She mocks
and drags her tail behind her
As she hugs me she breaks my ribs
and vents her hatred on my mouth
I love to hate her
Many times I wished as she hugs me
I could kill her

[shahz]

A letter from under the sea


If you are my friend...
Help me...to leave you
Or if you are my lover...
Help me...so I can be healed of you...
If I knew....
that the ocean is very deep...I would not have swam...
If I knew...how I would end,
I would not have began

I desire you...so teach me not to desire
teach me...
how to cut the roots of your love from the depths
teach me...
how tears may die in the eyes
and love may commit suicide

If you are prophet,
Cleanse me from this spell
Deliver me from this atheism...
Your love is like atheism...so purify me from this atheism

If you are strong...
Rescue me from this ocean
For I don't know how to swim
The blue waves...in your eyes
drag me...to the depths
blue...
blue...
nothing but the color blue
and I have no experience
in love...and no boat...

If I am dear to you
then take my hand
For I am filled with desire...from my
head to my feet

I am breathing under water!
I am drowning...
drowning...
drowning...

[shahz]

When i Love

When I love
I feel that I am the king of time
I possess the earth and everything on it
and ride into the sun upon my horse.

When I love
I become liquid light
invisible to the eye
and the poems in my notebooks
become fields of mimosa and poppy.

When I love
the water gushes from my fingers
grass grows on my tongue
when I love
I become time outside all time.

When I love a woman
all the trees
run barefoot toward me…

[shahz]

The Fortune Teller

She sat with fear in her eyes
Contemplating the upturned cup

She said "Do not be sad, my son
You are destined to fall in love"
My son, Who sacrifices himself for his beloved,
Is a martyr

For long have I studied fortune-telling
But never have I read a cup similar to yours

For long have I studied fortune-telling
But never have I seen sorrows similar to yours

You are predestined to sail forever
Sail-less, on the sea of love


Your life is forever destined
To be a book of tears
And be imprisoned
Between water and fire

But despite all its pains,
Despite the sadness
That is with us day and night

Despite the wind
The rainy weather
And the cyclone
It is love, my son
That will be forever the best of fates


There is a woman in your life, my son
Her eyes are so beautiful
Glory to God
Her mouth and her laughter
Are full of roses and melodies
And her gypsy and crazy love of life
Travels the world

The woman you love
May be your whole world
But your sky will be rain-filled
Your road blocked, blocked, my son

Your beloved, my son, is sleeping
In a guarded palace
He who approaches her garden wall
Who enters her room
And who proposes to her
Or tries to unite her plaits
Will cause her to be lost, my son…lost


You will seek her everywhere, my son
You will ask the waves of the sea about her
You will ask the shores of the seas
You will travel the oceans
And your tears will flow like a river

And at the close of your life
You will find that since your beloved
Has no land, no home, no address
You have been pursuing only a trace of smoke
How difficult it is, my son
To love a woman
Who has neither land, nor home