Nizar Qabbani; “Unlimited Love” Part I Posted by Fisal on Aug 29, 2014 in Arabic Language, Culture, Grammar, Pronunciation, Vocabulary
Ahlan أهــْــلاً Arabic lovers! Today, I am presenting a very beautiful love poem by the great Arab poet Nizar Qabbani نــِــزَار قــَــبــَّــانــِــي. The poem is entitled “Unlimited Love حــُــبٌّ بــِــلا حــُــدُود“. Since the poem is very long, I will post it in two parts. I have also posted a youtube video reciting the whole poem in Arabic so that you can listen to the poem as long as reading it in both Arabic and English. I made the English translation for the poem and I hope you will love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4Ktxp8G4xM
يــَــا ســَـــيــِّــدَتــِــي
O, Mistress:
كــُــنــْــتِ أَهــَــمَّ اِمــْــرَأةٍ فــِــي تــَــاريــِــخــِــي
You were the most important woman in my history
قــَــبــْــلَ رَحــِــيــلِ الــعــَــامْ
Before the year passes
أَنــْــتِ الآنَ .. أهــَــمُّ اِمــْــرَأةٍ
Now, you are the most important woman
بــَــعــْــدَ وِلادَةِ هــَــذا الــعــَــامْ
After the birth of this year
أنــْــتِ اِمــْــرَأةٌ لا أَحــْــســُـــبــُــهــَــا بــِــالــســَّــاعــَــاتِ وَ بــِــالأيــَّــامْ
You are a woman that I don’t count by hours or days
أنــْــتِ اِمــْــرَأةٌ
You are a woman ..
صــُــنــِــعــَــتْ مــِــنْ فــَــاكــِــهــَــةِ الــشــِّــعــْــرِ
Made from the fruits of poetry ..
وَ مــِــنْ ذَهــَــبِ الأحــْــلامْ
And from the gold of dreams ..
أنــْــتِ اِمــْــرَأةٌ .. كــَــانــَــتْ تــَــســْــكــُــنُ جــَــســَــدِي
You are a woman .. that lived in my body
قــَــبــْــلَ مــَــلايــيــنِ الأعــْـــوَامْ
Millions of years ago..
يــَــا ســَــيــِّــدَتــِــي
O, Mistress
يــَــالــْــمــَــغــْـــزُولــَــةُ مــِــنْ قــُــطــْــنٍ وَ غــَــمــَــامْ
O, you that are woven from cotton and cloud
يــَــا أمــْــطــَــاراً مــِــنْ يــَــاقــُــوتٍ
O, you that are rains of sapphire..
يــَــا أنــْــهــَــاراً مــِــنْ نــَــهــَــاوِنــْــدٍ ..
O, you that are rivers ofNahawind (music)
يــَــا غــَــابــَــاتِ رُخــَـــام ..
O, you that are woods of marble
يــَــا مــَــنْ تــَــســْـــبــَــحُ كــَــالأســْـــمــَـــاكِ بــِــمــَـــاءِ الــقــَـــلــْـــبِ ..
O, you that swims like fish in the heart waters
وَ تــَــســْــكــُــنُ فــِــي الــعــَــيــْـــنــَـــيــْـــنِ كــَـــســِـــرْبِ حــَــمــَـــامْ .
And dwells in the eyes like a flock of doves
لــَــنْ يــَــتــَــغــَـــيــَّـــرَ شــَــيءٌ فــِــي عــَــاطــِــفــَـــتــِـــي ..
Nothing will change in my feelings,
فــِــي إِحــْـــســَـــاســِــي ..
In my sensation,
فــِــي وِجــْــدَانــِــي .. فــِــي إِيــمــَـــانــِــي ..
In my heart .. in my faith ..
فــَــأنــَــا ســَــوْفَ أَظـــَـــلُّ عــَــلــى دِينِ الإســْـــلامْ ..
For I will still follow Islam
يــَــا ســَـــيــِّـــدَتــِــي :
O, Mistress:
لا تــَــهــْـــتــّـــمــِــي فــِــي إيــقــَـــاعِ الــوَقــْـــتِ وَ أســْـــمــَــاءِ الــســَــنــَـــوَاتْ
Do not care for the rhythm of Time or the names of years.
أنــْــتِ اِمــْـــرَأةٌ تــَــبــْـــقــَــى اِمــْـــرَأةً .. فــِــي كــُـــلِّ الأوْقــَـــاتْ
You are a woman that remain a woman .. in all times
ســَــوْفَ أُحـــِــــبـــُّــــكِ ..
I will love you ..
عــِــنــْــدَ دُخــُــولِ الــقــَــرْنِ الــوَاحــِـــدِ وَ الــعــِــشــْـــريــنَ ..
When the twenty-first century comes in ..
وَ عــِــنــْــدَ دُخــُـــولِ الــقــَـــرْنِ الــخــَــامــِــسِ وَ الــعــِــشــْــريـــنَ ..
And when the twenty-fifth century comes in ..
وَ عــِــنــْــدَ دُخــُــولِ الــقــَــرْنِ الــتــَّــاســِــعِ وَ الــعــِــشــْــريــنَ ..
And when the twenty-ninth century comes in ..
وَ ســَـــوْفَ أحــِــبـــُّــكِ ..
And I will love you ..
حــِــيــنَ تــَــجــِــفُّ مــِــيــَـــاهُ الــبـــَـــحــْـــرِ ..
When the sea waters run out
وَ تــَـــحــْـــتــَــرِقُ الــغــَـــابــَــاتْ ..
And the woods burn down
يــَــا ســَـــيــِّـــدَتــِــي :
O, Mistress:
أنــْــتِ خــُــلاصــَـــةُ كــُــلِّ الــشــِّــعــْـــرِ ..
You are the overall poetry
وَ وَرْدَةُ كــُــلِّ الــحــُــرِّيــَّــاتْ
And the rose of all freedoms
يــَــكــْــفــِــي أنْ أتــَــهــَــجــَّــى إســْــمــَــكِ ..
It is enough to spell your name
حــَــتــَّــى أُصــْــبــُــحُ مــَــلــِــكَ الــشــِّــعــْــرِ ..
For me to become king of poetry
وَ فــِــرْعــَــوْنَ الــكــَــلــِــمــَـــاتْ ..
And pharaoh of words
يــَــكــْــفــِــي أنْ تــَــعــْــشــَــقــَــنــِــي اِمــْــرَأةٌ مــِــثــْــلــُــكِ ..
It is enough for me to be loved by a woman like you ..
حــَــتــَّــى أدْخـــُـــلَ فــِــي كــُــتــِــبِ الــتــَّـاريـــخِ ..
For me to come into history books
وَ تـــُـــرْفــَــعُ مــِــنْ أجــْــلــِــيَ الــرَّايــَــاتْ ..
And to have flags raised for me..
يــَــا ســَــيـــِّـــدَتــِــي :
O, Mistress:
لا تــَــضــْــطــَــرِبــِــي مــِــثــْـــلَ الــطــَّـــائــِـــرِ فــِــي زَمــَـــنِ الأعــْـــيــَـــادْ
Do not panic like a bird at the time of feasts
لــَــنْ يـــَـــتــَـــغــَـــيــَّــــرَ شــَـــيءٌ مــِـــنــّــي
Nothing will change in me
لــَــنْ يــَــتــَــوَقـــَّــفَ نــَــهــْـــرُ الــحــُّـــبِّ عــَــنِ الــجــَـــرَيــَـــانْ
The love river will not stop flowing
لــَــنْ يــَــتــَــوَقــَّـــفَ نـــَـــبــْـــضُ الــقــَــلــْــبِ عــَـــنِ الــخـــَـــفــَـــقـــَـــانْ
The heart pulse will not stop beating
لــَــنْ يــَــتــَــوَقــَّـــفَ حــَــجــَـــلُ الــشــِّــعــْـــرِ عــَــنِ الــطــَــيــَــرَانْ
The poetry partridge will not stop flying
حــِــيــنَ يــَــكــُــونُ الــحــُـــبُّ كــَــبــِــيــراً..
When love is grand..
وَ الــمــَــحــْــبــُـــوبــَـــةُ قــَــمــَــراً ..
And the beloved is a moon..
لــَــنْ يــَــتــَــحــَـــوَّلُ هــَـــذا الــحــُـــبُّ
This love will not change
لــِــحــْــزْمـــَـــةِ قــــَـــشٍّ تــَـــأكــُــلــُــهــَــا الــنــِــيـــرَانْ …
Into a pack of hay eaten by fires …
To Be Continued ……..
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Peace ســَـــلام /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:
Bethany Deems:
awesome article, thank you!
Fisal:
@Bethany Deems you are very welcome 🙂
Oscr:
Are your poems written in standard arabic?
Fisal:
@Oscr This is MSA (Modern Standard Arabic) as the poet is a contemporary one 🙂