He wrote extensively about the fabled beauty of Damascus-a beauty that has now long passed, after years of negligence, war, corruption, and bad government. Other notable themes of Nizar Qabbani’s poetry were love, lust, and his native Damascus, a city that was abundantly eulogised in all his works. That poem, where Nizar speaks in the first person of an Arab leader (without naming him), he adds: “Be silent when I address you, for my words are like the Holy Quran.” It was banned in Iraq, Libya, Egypt, and Syria. I kill so that you don’t kill me and I burry you in that collective jail so that you don’t jail me.”
BETWEEN US NIZAR QABBANI HOW TO
Neither my ministers nor advisers said no they taught me how to see myself as a God and to look down on the people as sand from my window. Since I came to power as a young man, nobody has ever said no to me. In a 1989 poem, entitled “Dailies of an Arab Executioner” Nizar wrote: “I am the omnipotent, the most wise and beautiful. Twenty years have passed and we are living in marble-made coffins, pledging allegiance to any general who seizes power and licking the shoes of any regime!” In another popular poem, eulogised after the Arab Spring, Nizar wrote: “Twenty years have gone by, while civilisations have passed right over over our heads. Those were among the thousands of verses that young Arabs printed on their secret pamphlets in 2011, calling for street demonstrations throughout Arab capitals. “The theatre has collapsed over your heads and the audience is cussing and spitting at you.” “When will you go away” wrote Nizar back in 1967, addressing Arab kings and presidents. Thirteen years after his death, during the early stages of the Arab Spring, his revolutionary poetry inspired millions of young people in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and then in his native Damascus. He was outspokenly critical of Anwar Al Sadat of Egypt and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for their respective peace deals with Israel, only praising one Arab leader by name, being Jamal Abdul Nasser. While your hands turn cold in your loneliness.Today marks the 20th anniversary of the passing of legendary Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani, who died at a London hospital, aged 75, back in 1998.Īn Arab nationalist at heart and a Nasserist, he was always critical of military dictatorships and firmly opposed to any peace with Israel.ĭuring a prolific career that started in 1943 and lasted until his death, he often made indirect reference to Arab presidents and kings in his poetic verse, mocking their incompetence, corruption, and submissiveness to the United States. I'm here, my nerves living on cigarettes, The ennui of the last two hours killed us My dear, we've read the morning papers twice,Īnd for a second time looked at the clock,Īnd as I recall we've shaken hands twice, Without undue embellishment, and pain pressing with urgency,Īnd hanging on's no different from leaving. "Decide what you wish, but this is how it is, my dear "It is the woman who writes the poems and the man who signs his name to them"
"My weakness was to see the world with the logic of a child"Īre like the jaws of a whale, ready to swallow me"Īnd the glass of a lifetime is shattered" Without intimidation.with symmetry of wsh. "He speaks not of parting and unrequited passions but of the harmonious union of man and woman, which alone is the source of life and continuity." (Salma Khadra Jayyusi)
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