“
Give me a daughter with your stubborn heart, or your even temper. Give our children your dark-bright eyes, or your enchanted smile. So that even when we are gone, the world will find within them all of the reasons why I loved you
”
”
نزار قباني
“
My lover asks me:
“What is the difference between me and the sky?”
The difference, my love,
Is that when you laugh,
I forget about the sky
”
”
نزار قباني
“
Because my love for you is beyond words, I decided to shut up.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
Don’t love deeply, till you make sure that the other part loves you with the same depth, because the depth of your love today, is the depth of your wound tomorrow.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
And I fear that my place gets taken by some other one, very lucky and not too shy, who flirts with your eyes while I’m the one who’s crazy about them.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
keep silent . .
the most beautiful voice ,
is the talk of your hand
on the table.
قليل من الصمت . . ياجاهلة
فأجمل من كل هذا الحديث
حديث يديك
على الطاولة
”
”
نزار قباني (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
I hadn't told them about you,
But they saw you bathing in my eyes.
I hadn't told them about you,
But they saw you in my written words.
The perfume of love cannot be concealed.
”
”
نزار قباني (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
When a man is in love
how can he use old words?
Should a woman
desiring her lover
lie down with
grammarians and linguists?
I said nothing
to the woman I loved
but gathered
love's adjectives into a suitcase
and fled from all languages.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
Your love taught me to grieve
and I have been needing, for centuries
a woman to make me grieve
for a woman, to cry upon her arms
like a sparrow
for a woman to gather my pieces
like shards of broken crystal
”
”
نزار قباني
“
أدمنت احزاني
فصرت اخاف ان لا احزنا
I got addicted to my sorrows,
Until I have gotten scared of not being sorrowed.
وطعنت آلافا من المرات
حتى صار يوجعني بان لا اطعنا
And I was stabbed thousands of times,
Until it felt painful not to be stabbed.
ولعنت في كل اللغات
حتى صار يقلقني بان لا العنا
And I was cursed in all the languages,
Until I started being nervous of not being cursed.
ولقد تشابهت كل البلاد
فلا ارى نفسي هناك، ولا ارى نفسي هنا
And all the countries seemed the same,
That I don't see myself there, And I don't see myself here.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
All words
In the dictionaries, letters, and novels
Died.
I want to discover
A way to love you
Without words.
”
”
نزار قباني (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
Your departure is not a tragedy:
I am like a willow tree
That always dies
While standing.
”
”
نزار قباني (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
During times of war.
I want to say:
I only love you,
And I cling you,
Like the peel clings to a pomegranate,
Like the tear clings to the eye,
Like the knife clings to the wound.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
This is my last letter
There will be no others.
This is the last grey cloud
That will rain on you,
After this, you will never again
Know the rain.
This is the last drop of wine in my cup
There will be no more drunkenness.
This is the last letter of madness,
The last letter of childhood.
After me you will no longer know
The purity of youth
The beauty of madness.
I have loved you
Like a child running from school
Hiding birds and poems
In his pockets.
With you I was a child of
Hallucinations,
Distractions,
Contradictions,
I was a child of poetry and nervous writing.
As for you,
You were a woman of Eastern ways
Waiting for her fate to appear
In the lines of the coffee cups.
How miserable you are, my lady,
After today
You won't be in the blue notebooks,
In the pages of the letters,
In the cry of the candles,
In the mailman's bag.
You won't be
Inside the children's sweets
In the colored kites.
You won't be in the pain of the letters
In the pain of the poems.
You have exiled yourself
From the gardens of my childhood
You are no longer poetry.
”
”
نزار قباني (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
Don't love deeply, till you make sure that the other part loves you with the same depth, because the depth of your love today, is the depth of your wound tomorrow.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
Every time I kiss you
After a long separation
I feel
I am putting a hurried love letter
In a red mailbox.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
The two years
You were my lover
Are the two most important pages
In the book of modern love.
All the pages before and after
Were blank.
These pages
Are the lines of the equator
Passing between your lips and mine
They are the measures of time
That are used
To set the clocks of the world.
”
”
نزار قباني (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
Jerusalem! My Love,My Town
I wept until my tears were dry
I prayed until the candles flickered
I knelt until the floor creaked
I asked about Mohammed and Christ
Oh Jerusalem, the fragrance of prophets
The shortest path between earth and sky
Oh Jerusalem, the citadel of laws
A beautiful child with fingers charred
and downcast eyes
You are the shady oasis passed by the Prophet
Your streets are melancholy
Your minarets are mourning
You, the young maiden dressed in black
Who rings the bells at the Nativity Church,
On sunday morning?
Who brings toys for the children
On Christmas eve?
Oh Jerusalem, the city of sorrow
A big tear wandering in the eye
Who will halt the aggression
On you, the pearl of religions?
Who will wash your bloody walls?
Who will safeguard the Bible?
Who will rescue the Quran?
Who will save Christ, From those who have killed Christ?
Who will save man?
Oh Jerusalem my town
Oh Jerusalem my love
Tomorrow the lemon trees will blossom
And the olive trees will rejoice
Your eyes will dance
The migrant pigeons will return
To your sacred roofs
And your children will play again
And fathers and sons will meet
On your rosy hills
My town
The town of peace and olives
”
”
نزار قباني
“
In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you
Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
My lover asks me:
“What is the difference between me and the sky?”
The difference, my love,
Is that when you laugh,
I forget about the sky.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
When you find a man
Who transforms
Every part of you
Into poetry,
Who makes each one of your hairs
Into a poem,
When you find a man
Capable,
As lam,
Of bathing and adorning you
With poetry,
I will beg you
To follow him without hesitation.
It is not important
That you belong to me or him
But that you belong to poetry.
”
”
Nizar Qabbani (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
I don’t know why everyone
is still trying to find out
whether heaven and hell exist.
Why do we need more evidence?
They exist here on this very Earth.
Heaven is standing atop Mount Qasioun
overlooking the Damascene sights
with the wind carrying Qabbani’s
dulcet words all around you.
And hell is only four hours away
in Aleppo where children’s cries
drown out the explosions of mortar bombs
until they lose their voice,
their families, and their limbs.
Yes, hell certainly does exist
right now, at this moment,
as I pen this poem. And all we’re doing
to extinguish this hellfire
is sighing, shrugging, liking, and sharing.
Tell me: what exactly does that make
us? Are we any better than the
gatekeepers of hell?
”
”
Kamand Kojouri
“
My beloved, if one day they ask you about me,
Do not hesitate and tell them with pride:
'He loves me, he loves me a lot.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
Oh, my love
If you were at the level of my madness,
You would cast away your jewelry,
Sell all your bracelets,
And sleep in my eyes.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
I loved many before you, and I'll see many after you, and I met many when I was with you, but you are outside of the geometry of repetition.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
هذي دمشق.. وهذي الكأس والراح
إني أحب... وبعـض الحـب ذباح
أنا الدمشقي.. لو شرحتم جسدي
لسـال منه عناقيـدٌ.. وتفـاح
و لو فتحـتم شراييني بمديتكـم
سمعتم في دمي أصوات من راحوا
زراعة القلب.. تشفي بعض من عشقو
وما لقلـبي –إذا أحببـت جـراح
This is Damascus... and this is a glass of spirit (comfort)
I am in love... but I am aware of the fact that certain kinds of love can slaughter you in wrath
I am a Damascene... if you dissect me into halves
You will have but grapes... and apples falling in your path
Open my veins with scalpels
Hear ancestral chants
If heart transplants... can cure some of the passionate
Why does mine stay torn in half then?
”
”
نزار قباني
“
Give me a daughter with your stubborn heart, or your even temper. Give our children your dark-bright eyes, or your enchanted smile. So that even when we are gone, the world will find within them all of the reasons why I loved you
”
”
Nizar Qabbani
“
Love happened at last,
And we entered God's paradise,
Sliding
Under the skin of the water
Like fish.
We saw the precious pearls of the sea
And were amazed.
Love happened at last
Without intimidation...with symmetry of wish.
So I gave...and you gave
And we were fair.
It happened with marvelous ease
Like writing with jasmine water,
Like a spring flowing from the ground.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
Your love took me
To the land of wonder.
Your love attacked me
Like the scent of a woman entering an elevator.
Your love surprised me
While I sat in a cafe with a poem,
And made me forget the poem.
Your love attacked me
Like a wild animal.
Surprising me
While I sat on top of my suitcase,
Waiting for the train of days.
I forgot the train,
I forgot the days,
While I traveled with you
To the land of wonder.
”
”
Nizar Qabbani (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
screen filled with symbols, only this time it was Arabic letters that meant nothing to him. He assumed they meant nothing to Raj as well, and was therefore surprised when Raj pointed out a short sequence. “This is the word for ‘person’ or ‘human being’.” Daniel stared at Raj. “You know Arabic?” “No, not really. I have read Nizar Qabbani in translation, and this word is a particularly beautiful shape, is it not?” “Still waters run deep, Raj. So you read Arabic love poetry. I wouldn’t have ever guessed.” Raj blushed. “Sushma is more woman than I can handle without help,” he admitted. “Qabbani writes more than just love poetry. It is quite erotic.
”
”
J.C. Ryan (The 10th Cycle (Rossler Foundation, #1))
“
Give me a daughter with your stubborn heart, or your even temper. Give our children your dark-bright eyes, or your enchanted smile. So that even when we are gone, the world will find within them all of the reasons why I loved you.
”
”
نزار قباني
“
tell me even though lies soft words
it was about to kill me with you that statue
i still in the art of love a baby
between us seas and mountains
you still can't understand
that all men are babies
so if i stood before your love quietly
then quietness in the love is love
our words in love are killing our love
and letters are dying after they're said
love stories may drive you crazy
cause its all full of fantasies
love is not a story,my dear
where the stars marry each other by the end
its to get hot blooded for anything silly
it's our misery, it's our killing doubting
it's this hand that assassin us
and we accept that hand that assassin
”
”
نزار قباني (عاشقانه های نزار قبانی)
“
Give me a daughter with your stubborn heart, or your even temper.
Give our children your dark-bright eyes, or your enchanted smile.
So that even when we are gone, the world will find within them all of the reasons why I loved you
”
”
Nizar Qabbani
“
Take the sea,
The boats,
The passengers.
But continue to be my lover.
Take all my possessions,
I am only a poet.
All my wealth is
In my notebooks
And in your beautiful eyes.
”
”
Nizar Qabbani (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
I want to make you a unique alphabet
In it, I want
The rhythm of the rain,
The dust of the moon,
The sadness of the grey clouds,
The pain of the fallen willow leaves
Under the wheels of autumn.
”
”
Nizar Qabbani (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)
“
Your love took me
To the land of wonder
Your love attacked me
Like the scent of a woman entering an elevator
Your love surprised me
While I sat in a cafe with a poem,
And made me forget the poem
Your love attacked me
Like a wild animal.
Surprising me
While I sat on top of my suitcase
Waiting for the train of days.
I forgot the train, I forgot the days,
While I traveled with you
To the land of wonder.
”
”
Nizar Qabbani (Arabian Love Poems: Full Arabic and English Texts)