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Nizar Qabbani: “Hamlet; The Poet” Posted by on Mar 26, 2015 in Arabic Language, Culture, Vocabulary

   Ahlan أهــْــلاً , Arabic lovers! Today, I am presenting a beautiful love poem by the great Arab poet Nizar Qabbani نــِــزَار قــَــبــَّــانــِــي . The poem is entitled; “Hamlet; The Poet هــامــلــت شــاعــراً“. In the poem, the lover rushes in his love like Hamlet. He borrows some lines from Hamlet and adapts them to the theme of love. He seeks unlimited love in return to his endless love. He loves madly and asks his beloved to get mad, too. I made the English translation for the poem and I hope you will love it.

The Lovers at Gretna Green by Lapsus Kalamari via Flicker

The Lovers at Gretna Green by Lapsus Kalamari via Flicker

أنْ تـكـوني اِمـرأةً .. أو لا تـكـونـي  ..

To be a woman .. or not to be

تـلـكَ .. تـلـكَ الـمـسـألــَـهْ

This .. this is the question

أنْ تـكـوني اِمـرأتـي الـمـفـضــَّــلـهْ

To be my favorite woman

قـطــَّــتـي الـتـركــيــَّــة الـمـُــدلــَّــلــهْ  ..

My Turkish pet cat

أنْ تـكـونـي الـشـمـسَ .. يـا شـمـسَ عــُــيــونـي 

To be the sun .. O, you; sun of my eyes

و يــداً طــيــّــبــةً فــوقَ جــبــيــنــي 

To be a kind hand over my forehead

أنْ تـكــونـي فـي حــيــاتــي الــمــقــْــبــِــلــَــهْ 

To be in my future life

نــجــمــةً .. تــلــكَ الــمــشــكــِــلــَــهْ 

A star .. this is the question!

أنْ تــكــونــي كــلَّ شــيّْ  .. 

To be everything ..

أو تــُــضــيــعــي كــلَّ شــيّْ  .. 

Or to lose everything ..

إنَّ طــبــْــعــي عــنــدمــا أهــوى  

My mood when in love

كــطــبــْــعِ الــبــَــرْبــَــريّْ  ..

Is like that of a barbarian

أنْ تــكــونــي  .. 

To be ..

كــلَّ مــا يــحــمــلــُــهُ نــوَّارُ مــن عــُــشــْــبٍ نــديّْ 

Everything a bud carries of grass

أنْ تــكــونــي .. دفــتــري الأزرقَ  .. 

To be .. my blue notebook

أوراقــي .. مــِـدادي الــذهــنــيّْ  ..

My papers .. my mental ink

أنْ تــكــونــي .. كــَــلــِــمــَــةً 

To be .. a word

تــبــحــثُ عــن عــُــنــوانــِــهــا فــي شــَــفــَــتــيّْ 

That seeks its address on my lips

طــفــلــةً تــكــبــرُ مــا بــيــن يــديّْ 

A child that grows up in my hands

آهِ يــا حــوريــةً أرســَــلــهــَــا الــبــحــرُ إلــيّْ  .. 

O, you fairy that the sea has sent to me ..

و يــا قــَــرْعَ الــطــُــبــُــولِ الــهــَــمــَــجــيّْ  

O, you barbarian beat of drums

إفْــهــَــمــيــنــي  .. 

Understand me ..

أتــمــنــَّــى مــُــخــْــلــصــاً أنْ تــَــفــْــهــَــمــيــنــي 

I sincerely hope that you understand me

رُبــَّــمــا .. أخــطــأتُ فــي شــرحِ ظــنــُــونــي  

Maybe .. I have misexplained my thoughts

رُبــَّــمــا ســِــرتُ إلــى حــُــبــِّــكِ مــعــصــوبَ الــعــيــونِ 

Maybe I have walked to your love blindly

و نــَــســَــفــْــتُ الــجــســرَ مــا بــيــنَ اِتــِّــزانــي و جــُــنــونــي   

And blew up the bridge between my balance and madness

أنــا لا يــمــكــنُ أنْ أعــشــقَ إلاّ بــجــُــنــونــي 

I can never love but with madness

فــاِقــْــبــَــلــِــيــنــي هــكــذا .. أو فــارْفـــُــضــِــيــنــي  .. 

So, accept me like this .. or reject me

إنــْــصــتــي لــي .. 

Listen to me ..

أتــمــنــَّــى مــُــخــْــلــصــاً أنْ تــُــنــْــصــِــتــي لــي .. 

I do sincerely hope that you listen

مــا هــُــنــاكَ اِمــرأةٌ دُونَ بــديــلِ 

There is no woman with no alternate

فــاتــنٌ وجــهــُــكِ .. لــكــنْ فــي الــهــوى 

Charming is your face .. but in love

لــيــس تــكــفــي فــتــنــةُ الــوجــه الــجــمــيــلِ 

It is not enough to have a charming face

إفْــعــَــلــي مــا شــِــئــتِ .. لــكــنْ حــاذِري .. 

Do whatever you want .. but beware

حــاذِري أنْ تــقــتــلــي فــيَّ فــُــضــُـــولــي .. 

Beware of killing curiosity in me

تــَــعــِــبــَــتْ كــفــَّـــايَ .. يــا ســيــِّـــدتــي 

My hands got tired .. O, Mistress

و أنــا أطـــرُقُ بــابَ الــمــُــســْــتــَــحــيــلِ .. 

While I was knocking the door of the impossible

فــاِعــشــقــي كــالــنــَّــاس .. أو لا تــعــشــقــي 

So, love like people .. or do not love

إنــَّــنــِـي أرفــُــضُ أَنــْــصــَــافَ الــحــُــلــُــولِ .. 

I do refuse half-solutions.

*****

* More poems of Nizar Babbani on our Arabic Blog:

***** 

Check us back soon 

Peace  ســَــلام /Salam/

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About the Author: Fisal

Well, I was born near the city of Rasheed or Rosetta, Egypt. Yes, the city where the Rosetta Stone was discovered. It is a small city on the north of Egypt where the Nile meets the Mediterranean. I am a Teacher of EFL.


Comments:

  1. Is-Hak Barsoumian//London/G.Britain:

    Whatever we say or add our thoughts about the infamous/GREAT last century s Arab/SYRIAN born romantic and patriotic poet the late Mr.NIZAR QABBANI , it will not be fair or enough to give this poem-genius his right or deserved value, words are too little fraction to describe his role in ARAB literature, he was the best ever to impersonate the feelings and turmoil of the Eastern ,especially The Arab Women were enduring and for centuries , as deprived,neglected. their rights denied . or as an object without emotions or dignity..a piece of furniture in the Arab home? Only when she becomes a Mother,then she was/is regarded as a human being..mostly by her children, but still regarded as a second class citizen in her own birth country, So what Mr. NIZAR did in his poems and all the books he wrote was to get possessed and disguise his inner being as any Arab suffering female and let his pen get carried away without fear or boundaries to become explosive poems on the notebook,even though his real bread winning career in the 1950/60 as Syrian Ambassador in SPAIN and other locations ,but his devotion and love he carried in his mind /heart and soul for ,mostly, Arab deprived women , never stopped him publishing such poems,,and allow famous Arab crooners sing lots..lots of them, as Mm Nagat Al SAGHIRA did in Ayazounnou/( HE THINKS I AM HIS TOY )also Maza Akoulou Lahou (What to tell my lover) , Late great crooner Mr, Abdel Halim Hafez in Rissala Meen Taht el Maa( A message from the water depth) i once read that when he was in LONDON/Britain , he used to sit in its Hyde Park next to its famous Serpentine river which inspired him to write that one?/ also sang KARIAAT AL Finjan/Fingan as pronounced in Egyptian Language( Coffee cup reader…or in other words Fortune teller, as an old tradition in the oriental societies like Tarot card reading?? Also Mr. Kazzem EL saa Her, famous Iraqi crooner ..too,sang many many of his poems such as ZIDINI ESHQAN (GIVE ME MORE of your LOVING) etc..etc Also famous Lebanese female singer Mm. MAGIDA EL ROUMI sang his KALIMAT(wORDS) and KON SADIQI (Be My Friend) as a Plea from a woman to an oriental man!!) He respected the women everywhere in the world,opposite what great Hollywood legend Mr. JACK NICHOLSON made the following quote in the movie … AS GOOD AS IT GETS,as he was a writer when the secretary girl asked him : Mr.Mervin how come you know too much about a woman s feelings Mr Nicholson answered : I take a man ,than I take away reason! But Mr.Qabbani believed in women and their rights . and respected their ezxistance.. in the Eastern society and fought for it in his ability same as Egypts women s rights fighter Mr, Qasim Amin?back in the 1900 s?!
    :: I was fortunate enough to see this Giant in flesh sometime back in the 1970/71/ or maybe 1973 sorry i don t recall the exact year, but he had his book publishing office ,then in BEIRUT/LEBANON next to SAMADI-SALHA building /Tower..Syria Street or better known as Khandaq Al Ghamiq area, 2nd or on 3 floor ??because a librarian friend of mine needed some of HIS books ..i saw this great poet ..a moment..unforgettable to this day. He never lost his charm and one felt in his presence as you are in front of A real legend/A POET and A GENTLEMAN indeed, by all what those words mean. Sad that such giants ..vanish from among us ..but their works are the liaison that keep us all connected to them all our life time and our loyalty and gratitude to their legacy..makes the world go around and around…..FROM Is-hak Barsoumian/London

  2. Is-Hak Barsoumian//London/G.Britain:

    Whatever we say or add our thoughts about the infamous/GREAT last century s Arab/SYRIAN born romantic and patriotic poet the late Mr.NIZAR QABBANI , it will not be fair or enough to give this poem-genius his right or deserved value, words are too little fraction to describe his role in ARAB literature, he was the best ever to impersonate the feelings and turmoil of the Eastern ,especially The Arab Women were enduring and for centuries , as deprived,neglected. their rights denied . or as an object without emotions or dignity..a piece of furniture in the Arab home? Only when she becomes a Mother,then she was/is regarded as a human being..mostly by her children, but still regarded as a second class citizen in her own birth country, So what Mr. NIZAR did in his poems and all the books he wrote was to get possessed and disguise his inner being as any Arab suffering female and let his pen get carried away without fear or boundaries to become explosive poems on the notebook,even though his real bread winning career in the 1950/60 as Syrian Ambassador in SPAIN and other locations ,but his devotion and love he carried in his mind /heart and soul for ,mostly, Arab deprived women , never stopped him publishing such poems,,and allow famous Arab crooners sing lots..lots of them, as Mm Nagat Al SAGHIRA did in Ayazounnou/( HE THINKS I AM HIS TOY )also Maza Akoulou Lahou (What to tell my lover) , Late great crooner Mr, Abdel Halim Hafez in Rissala Meen Taht el Maa( A message from the water depth) i once read that when he was in LONDON/Britain , he used to sit in its Hyde Park next to its famous Serpentine river which inspired him to write that one?/ also sang KARIAAT AL Finjan/Fingan as pronounced in Egyptian Language( Coffee cup reader…or in other words Fortune teller, as an old tradition in the oriental societies like Tarot card reading?? Also Mr. Kazzem EL saa Her, famous Iraqi crooner ..too,sang many many of his poems such as ZIDINI ESHQAN (GIVE ME MORE of your LOVING) etc..etc Also famous Lebanese female singer Mm. MAGIDA EL ROUMI sang his KALIMAT(wORDS) and KON SADIQI (Be My Friend) as a Plea from a woman to an oriental man!!) He respected the women everywhere in the world,opposite what great Hollywood legend Mr. JACK NICHOLSON made the following quote in the movie … AS GOOD AS IT GETS,as he was a writer when the secretary girl asked him : Mr.Mervin how come you know too much about a woman s feelings Mr Nicholson answered : I take a man ,than I take away reason! But Mr.Qabbani believed in women and their rights . and respected their existance.. in the Eastern society and fought for it in his ability same as Egypts women s rights fighter Mr, Qasim Amin?back in the 1900 s?!
    :: I was fortunate enough to see this Giant in flesh sometime back in the 1970/71/ or maybe 1973 sorry i don t recall the exact year, but he had his book publishing office ,then in BEIRUT/LEBANON next to SAMADI-SALHA building /Tower..Syria Street or better known as Khandaq Al Ghamiq area, 2nd or on 3 floor ??because a librarian friend of mine needed some of HIS books ..i saw this great poet ..a moment..unforgettable to this day. He never lost his charm and one felt in his presence as you are in front of A real legend/A POET and A GENTLEMAN indeed, by all what those words mean. Sad that such giants ..vanish from among us ..but their works are the liaison that keep us all connected to them all our life time and our loyalty and gratitude to their legacy..makes the world go around and around…..FROM Is-hak Barsoumian/London