It has been a while since we last read any Arabic poetry! Today we are going to read a poem by the great Arab poet Nizar Qabbani. The poem is entitled, “Five Love Texts خـمــســةُ نــُُــصـــُـــوص عــَــن الــحــُـــبّ  ”. In the poem, Nizar boasts of being in love. He says that his love is indescribable and everlasting. No one can explain this love in any ancient or modern language. This love raises so many questions that he can not find any answers to them in poetry. Yet, this love inspires him with millions of sweet words.

خــَــمــْــســَــة نـــُــصـــُـــوص عــَـــن الــحــُـــبّ

Five Love Texts

(1)

حُـــبـــُّـــكِ

Your Love is ..

حَـــــدَثٌ تـــَـــاريـــخـــيٌّ مــِــن أحــْــدَاثِ الــكــَــوْن

A historical event from those of the universe

وعُـــرْسٌ لـِـلأزهـــَــارِ ولـِـلأعــْــشـــَـــابْ  

And a wedding for flowers and grass

وَحْــــيٌ يــَــنــْــزِِلُ   

A revelation that descends

 أو لا يــَــنـــْــزِلُ 

Or does not descend

طِـــفــْـــلٌ يُــولـــَـــدُ  

A baby that is born

 أو لا يـــُـــولـــَــــدُ

Or that is not born

بــَــرْقٌ يــَــلـــْـــمــَــعُ    

Lightning that glitters

أو لا يـــَــلـــْــمــَـــعُ

Or that does not glitter

قَــَــمــَـــرٌ يــَــطـــْــلــَــعُ

A moon that rises

أو لا يــَـــطـــْـــلــــَــــعُ

Or that does not rise.

(2)

حــُـــبـــُّــــكِ 

Your Love is ..

نــــَـــصٌ مــِــســْــمــَـــــاريٌ

A Cuneiform text

آشـــــــــُـــــــــــــــــورىٌّ

An Assyrian text

فــِـــيــنــِـــيـــقـــِــــيٌ   

A Phoenician text

ســـِــــرْيـــَـــانـــِـــيٌ 

A Sriyani text

فـــِـــرْعـــُـــونــِــيٌ ،

A Pharaonic text

هـــِــنــْــدُوكــِــــيٌ

A Hindu text

نــَــصٌ لــَــمْ يــُــكــْــتــَــبُ فــِــي أيِّ كــِــتـــَـــابْ

A text that is not written in any book.

(3)

حــُــبـــُّــــكِ

Your Love is ..

وَقـــْـــتٌ بــَــيـــْـــنَ الــســـِّـــلـــْــمِ ، وبــَـــيـــْـــنَ الــحـــَـــرْبِ

A time between peace and war.

و لــــَـــيــْــسَ هــُـــنـــَـــالــِــكَ حـــــَــــربٌ

And there is no war

أســْـــوَأُ مــِــن حـــَــــرْبِ الأعــْـــصـــَـــابْ

Worse than that on nerves.

(4)

حــُــبـــُّــــكِ

Your Love is ..

ســـِــــرْدَابٌ ســـِـــحــــْــــرِيٌّ

A magical tunnel

فـــِـــيـــهِ مــَــلايــيــــنُ الأبــْـــوَابْ 

With millions of doors

فـــَـــإذا مــَـــا أفــْـــتـــَـــحُ بــَـــابـــَـــاً

Whenever I open one

يـــُـــغـــْــــلـــَـــــقُ بـــَـــابْ

Another is closed

يــَــهـــْـــطـــُـــلُ مــِـــن شـــَـــفـــَـــتـــَـــيَّ الــشـــَـــهــــــْــــدُ 

Sweetness pours out of my lips

وإذا غــــَـــازَلـــْــــتــــــُــــكِ يـــَــــوْمــــَــــاً ،  يـــَـــا ســَـــيـــَّـــدَتـــِــي

And if I flirt with you once, O, my Lady,

يــَـــقـــــْـــتــــُــــلـــُـــــنــِـــي الأَعـــْــــــرَابْ

The Arabs kill me.

(5)

حــُــبـــُّــــكِ

Your Love ..

يــَـــطــــْـــرَحُ ألـــْـــفَ ســـُـــؤَالٍ 

Raises a thousand questions

لــَـــيــْــسَ لــَــهــَـــا فــِــي الــشــِـــعـــْــــرِ .. جـــَــــــوَابْ

That have no answer in poetry.

To listen to this poem in Arabic, please visit our Arabic Transparent youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/ArabicTransparent

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Peace  ســــلام /Salam/