TRYING TO PUT IT 

INTO WORDS.......

Poem for Today - Tuesday - September 23, 2014

THE DICTIONARY FOR LOVERS

I've always thought of writing a dictionary for lovers—

my friends, the lovers.

I've always thought of making them happy,

those marvellous people ... thought of

lighting a small lantern

for the lost thousands,

and making my heart

a wheat field for all the hungry.

I 've always considered making my eyelids

a sheet to throw over the weary

and finding out

where the birds of sadness come from

and when the trees of longing bloom.

Considered discovering what fire has burned us

for millions

of years.

I have, without a doubt, been a big fool

calling myself

the official spokesman of lovers.

Can it happen?

Is it possible to hold the sea in a bottle—

imprison jasmine?

Can the flowers of love be compressed

in one book?

I ask mercy from the God of all!

(1981)

© Nizar Qabbani (1923 -1998)

Pages 100-101 in

When the Words Burn,

An Anthology of Modern

Arabic Poetry: 1945-1987,

translated by John Mikhail Asfour