me and my lover

 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...