The unknown knight

 Romantic Arabic poem

Poem’s name: The unknown knight 

(الفارس المجهول)

  Poet's name: Ahmed Shalabi 

(أحمد شلبي)

Date of writing the poem: 1 February 1987

  listen to the poem - part 1

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مشيت على جمر المنى أتلهف

I walked on the embers of desire filled with yearning.

لعل التي جئت من أجلها تعرف

May the woman who I came for know

كي أزين الجسد منك قلادة

to adorn her body with a necklace

معي من تراث المجد سيف ومصحف

from the heritage of glory, I have a Qur’an and a sword

وفوق جبيني الكبر ما انفك آية

Above my forehead, there‘s a mark of nobility

تهب بها ريح الليالي وتعصف

a mark that awakens the wind of the nights 

وبين يدي الحب يحمل شعلتي

And in my hand, love lifts my flame

وصوتي رايات إليك ترفرف

And my voice is flags that flap toward you


An explanation of this piece from the arabic poems 

This poem discusses the idea of love in a new way, the poet here (Ahmed Shalabi) shows his yearning for his lover in a dignified way. You can see some words like: the heritage of glory, the wind of the nights, flags, swords... etc.

He doesn’t show any weakness although his love is strong and real, he is fighting for his love. the style of the poet belongs to the modern school of poetry. there is no specific division of the lines of the poem in the freestyle of the Arabic poetry.  The Arabic poem is like the Arabic mindset in general. Both basically depend on high levels of emotions and morality. Also, the Exaggeration is an important part of the culture of the communication. 

We can see how the poet exaggerates his feelings to the maximum.  The religion affects every part of life. You can find how interesting to use Qur’an which is the holy book of  the Muslims in these sequences. the Arabic language and the modern Arabic culture depend on the Islamic history.



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