poem’s name: me and my lover
(أنا وحبيبي)
Poet’s name: Hussein Ali Saab
(حسين علي صعب)
Date of writing the poem: 1 june 1959

→ listen to the poem
*****
وانسل ليل عاطر حنون
A kind and scented night slipped
يلفنا بصمته المهيب
It wraps us with its majestic silence
أنا هنا وطيفك الحبيب
I am here and your lovely shadow
على افترار اخضر رطيب
On a wet and green smile
حبيبتي.. هل تشبع العيون من عابر يطوف في الضباب
My love... do the eyes fill up from a passer that walks around in the fog?
هل ترتوي القلوب من بارق يلوح كالسراب
Do the hearts quench from a lightning that appears in space?
لكنني وإن غرست زهرة المنى
Although I plant the flower of the wishes
ورحت في حديقة مسحورة الجني
And I go through a garden with magical fairies
أشمها، أضمها، أرويها من دموع
I smell, hold and water it from tears
وأجعل الضلوع مظلمة تقيها لفحة الهجير
And I make the ribs like an umbrella that defends it from the high heat
أخاف أن يستيقظ الخريف
I fear that the autumn wakes up
فتنتثر أوراقها الرقيقة
So, her thin leaves scatter
وترتمي على الثرى، صريعة قتيلة
And they fall dead on the sand
تعبت كي لا تتعبي
I got tired so you don’t
زرعت في الدروب
I plant in the roads
زرعت ألف وردة
I planted a thousand flowers
****
تخطري، تخطري، خطاك سيفمونية ملونة
Strut, strut, your steps are a colorful symphony
تؤجج الشعور وتزلزل الصخور
that kindles the feeling and shakes the rocks
فالعمر شمعة الهوى تخفق ثم تنطفئ
Cause the age is the candle of love that beats then disappears
وقبلة من ثغرك الحلو
And a kiss from your beautiful mouth…
عوالم مسحورة
…Is a magical worlds
معطرة كأنها أسطورة
Scented like a legend
تلفها عباءة السكون
The cloak of stillness wraps it
تراقص الأحلام كالدمى
It dances with the dreams like toys
لو سألت الشهب في السما
If you ask the meteors in the sky
لهوت تغازل العيون
They (the meteors) gonna fall down to flirt the eyes
وكان يا حبيبتي ما خفت أن يكون
And what I feared happened
فقد أتى الخريف
Cause the autumn comes…
بوجهه الملثم المخيف
with its fearful and covered face...
فأصبحت حديقتي صحراء من جليد
So, my garden becomes a desert of snow
مقابرا تثير في صموتها الشجون
Like cemeteries that arouse sorrows in their silence
وتبعث النواح
And resurrect the crying
وتستزيد لوعتي فأبقى كالطريد
And increase my pain so I remain like a runaway
An explanation of this piece from the arabic poems :
We can see some fresh poetic images, such as:
“Through a garden with magical fairies”,
“The flower of the wishes”
And “a colorful symphony”
with a lot of sense of beauty.
Hussein Ali Saab is a famous Lebanese poet. He was born in the north of Lebanon, a small Arab country. He was influenced by Nasser, an Arabic famous political figure in the 1950s and 1960s. Nasser was the president of Egypt (from 1952 to 1970) and his political project hoped for the unity of all Arabs (the Arabism). So our poet had the same big hope. And his words were influenced by that in other poets that were published in the Lebanese magazines...

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