This is the third entry about نزار قباني Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998) (click here to see previous posts), a Syrian poet who has left us with a rich intellectual legacy. On top of that, his political poetry can be regarded as a completely new phenomenon in modern Arabic poetry; and "his poetry in general is haunted by ideas of change and revolt against the old poetic genres and indeed against some new forms (i.e. free verse), as well as against the stagnation which has been inherited generation from generation - a stagnation of thought, expression and metre" (Al-Shahham, A. (1989), The Political Poetry of Nizar Qabbani. A Critical Study and Translation).
You can enjoy the poem below along with a song version of it sang by عبدالحليم إسماعيل شبانة Abdel Halim Hafez (1929-1977), one of the most popular Egyptian and Arab singers.
Letter from Under the Sea
If you are my friend...
Help me...to leave you
Or if you are my lover...
Help me...so I can be healed of you...
If I knew....
that the ocean is very deep...I would not have swam...
If I knew...how I would end,
I would not have began
I desire you...so teach me not to desire
teach me...
how to cut the roots of your love from the depths
teach me...
how tears may die in the eyes
and love may commit suicide
If you are prophet,
Cleanse me from this spell
Deliver me from this atheism...
Your love is like atheism...so purify me from this atheism
If you are strong...
Rescue me from this ocean
For I don't know how to swim
The blue waves...in your eyes
drag me...to the depths
blue...
blue...
nothing but the color blue
and I have no experience
in love...and no boat...
If I am dear to you
then take my hand
For I am filled with desire...from my
head to my feet
I am breathing under water!
I am drowning...
drowning...
drowning...
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