His poetry remains timeless, even as it continues to be deeply personal. The way his sister's suicide deeply affected him, and led him to become an advocate for women's rights in the Middle East. Part of my love and appreciation for Nizar Qabbani comes from what I've heard about him as a person. Those poems about women are written in such a way that you just know he had nothing but respect and understanding and love for all women. It takes courage and a bit of poetic madness. Also it was not easy to write about women so freely in that time and place. (Which is also truly beautiful, with much passion) But also the world and feelings seen from their eyes. (+ It's always nice to fantasize about those poems being written for me haha.) And I think it's quite beautiful and inspiring how he writes about women, not just about their body etc. His poems are very lovely, sincere and it makes me love him as a person because of his work. The (sad) story about his life is very inspiring and is in a way consistent with the poems. I love how one page has the Arabic text (written with pen, by himself!!!!) and next to it is the translation. Though in Arabic it's more intense, but because it's hard the English is really helpful and both made perfect. I was/still am struggling with the arab part but I've learned that they didn't lose meaning when translated in English. The (sad) story about his life is very inspiring and is in a way c 5 STARS! I love his poems. With a sheet made of summer stars.moreĥ STARS! I love his poems. * The birds of your eyes Come in flocks From the seaside Like words Flying out of the pages Of a blue noteb Better to be read when you are young and in love. * 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. 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. We are as worthless as a water-melon rind.Better to be read when you are young and in love. The dogs wouldn’t have savaged our flesh.ĭon’t read about our suffocated generation, If we hadn’t ripped its young body with bayonets
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What’s the use of a people without tongues? We let our oil flow through the toes of whores. They crept through our weaknesses like ants.Īre we the ‘Nation by which God blessed mankind’? It’s painful to listen to the barking of dogs. It’s painful to listen to the news in the morning You changed me from a poet who wrote love poemsīy boastful swaggering that never killed a fly, Our speech with holes like worn-out shoes is dead. The unnamed verse below, written in 1970, seems as if it could have been written yesterday in half a dozen nations – and in some U.S. Youth by the millions in every Arab country, and each generation since his fame and liberal spirit spread, still compose their declarations of love and new life in the light of Nizar Qabbani’s poetry. His progressive and secular politics and outlook alienated him from some conservative trends in the Arab world, awash in “blood oil” or religious extremism. By profession he was a diplomat for the Syrian government through the mid 1960s. Thereafter, he expressed resentment of male chauvinism and often wrote from a woman’s viewpoint and advocated social freedoms for women. The suicide of his sister, who was unwilling to marry a man she did not love, had a profound effect on Qabbani.
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He earned a reputation for daringness with the publication in 1954 of his first volume of verse, “Childhood of a Breast,” whose erotic and romantic themes broke from the conservative traditions of Arab literature. Through a lifetime of writing, Qabbani made women his main theme and inspiration. He is one of the most revered contemporary poets in the Arab world.” His poetic style combines simplicity and elegance in exploring themes of love, eroticism, feminism, religion and Arab nationalism. Wikipedia summarizes Nizar Qabbani (Ma– April 30, 1998) as follows: he was “a Syrian diplomat, poet and publisher.