GeorgeNicolasEl-Hage.com
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  • Professional Profile
    • Who is George Nicolas El-Hage
  • Publications
    • "Aqlam Muhajirah" The voice of the New Pen League (NPL)
    • Literary Criticism >
      • Books (English) >
        • A Labor of Love: Our Lebanon Family Home Renovation Project
        • Gibran Kahlil Gibran: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
        • Eliya Abu Madi: The Distinguished Poet of al-Rabita al-Qalamiya
        • A Brief History of Arabic Literature: Volume One: Pre-Islamic to the Abbaasid Age
        • A Brief History of Arabic Literature: Volume Two: Andalusia to the Modern Age
        • William Blake and Kahlil Gibran: Poets of Prophetic Vision
        • Gibran Kahlil Gibran: The Man Versus the Legend
        • Essays on Literature and Language
        • Ibn al-Farid's "Khamriyya" ("Ode on Wine")
        • Nizar Qabbani: Women in My Poetry and in My Life
        • Nizar Qabbani: My Story with Poetry - "An Autobiography"
        • Nizar Qabbani: Journal of An Indifferent Woman
        • Ghada al-Samman's Beirut '75: An Autobiographical Interpretation
        • English Translation of Selected Letters of Badr Shakir al-Sayyab
        • Khalil Hawi: Letters of Love and Life
        • Immortal Quotes from Ameen al-Rihani’s Masterpiece The Book of Khalid
        • Ameen al-Rihani: Eastern and Western Figures
        • Ameen al-Rihani’s The Register of Repentance: Four Short Stories and a Play
        • Selected Letters of Ameen al-Rihani: Translated with an Introduction and Notes
        • Ameen al-Rihani: You...The Poets
        • Ameen al-Rihani: My Story with May
        • Ameen al-Rihani: The Muleteer and the Priest
      • Books (Arabic) >
        • al-Zajal al-Lubnani wa Zaghloul al-Damour fi Beit Meri: (Lebanese Zajal and Zaghloul al-Damour in Beit Meri)
        • Madkhal ila-l-'alam al-shi 'ri 'inda Khalil Hawi usluban wa madmunan: (An Introduction to the Poetic Universe of Khalil Hawi)
        • al-Nabi bayna 'adu al-Masih wa al-Insan al-Ilah
        • Sahifat "al-Risala" al-Lubnaniya al-Mahjariya: (The "al-Risala" Newspaper and the Lebanese Press in Diaspora)
        • Gibran Kahlil Gibran wa William Blake: Sha'ira al-Ru'ya: (Gibran Kahlil Gibran and William Blake: Poets of Prophetic Vision)
        • The Trilogy of Heroism, Redemption, and Triumph: The Press in Diaspora, Khalil Hawi, Zaghloul al-Damour
    • Textbooks & Articles on Teaching & Learning Arabic >
      • marHaba III: A Course in Levantine & Modern Standard Arabic (LMSA) >
        • marHaba III: PART ONE Audio Files
        • marHaba III: PART TWO Audio Files
        • marHaba III: PART FOUR Audio Files
      • marHaba II: A Course in Levantine Arabic - Lebanese Dialect - Intermediate Level >
        • A Companion Book to marHaba II: English Translation & Transliteration of All Lessons in marHaba II
      • marHaba: A Course in Levantine Arabic - Lebanese Dialect >
        • marHaba: Practice Workbooks
      • MABROUK: A Course in Modern Standard Arabic (Elementary & Intermediate Levels) >
        • Study Guide: MABROUK
      • The Story of Sami and Warda
    • Lebanese Nursery Rhymes
    • Books (Poetry in English/Arabic) >
      • Love Surpassed: A Book of Poetry
      • Letters to My Son: An Immigrant's Saga
      • Lebanese Hymns of Love and War
    • Books (Poetry in Arabic) >
      • Love Poems from Beirut
      • Awdat al-Faris wa Qiyamat al-Madina
      • al-Ghurba wa Mawasim al-Dhalam
      • Law Kunti Li
      • Qasa’id Bila Tarikh (Undated Poems) >
        • Mikhail Naimy: Fathers and Sons - A Play in Four Acts
      • Maw’id wa-liqa’
      • anti wal atfaalu fi Beirut: You and the Children in Beirut
      • You and the Children in Beirut
    • Poems (English) >
      • To Mary Ann with Love: A Book of Poetry
      • Birth of a Princess
      • Forty Years of Bliss
      • Thinking of You
      • You are My Christmas
      • A Poem for Mother's Day
      • To Mary Ann on Her Birthday
    • Poems (Arabic) >
      • Arabic Poems in MSA >
        • Beirut Speaks - song
        • A Tribute to Beirut
        • Lubnaniyat
        • The Garden of Visions
        • Najwa
        • Kunna ibtada’na
      • Arabic Poems in Lebanese Dialect >
        • Hilwit libnan
    • My Poetry (Translated from Arabic to English) >
      • Beirut Speaks
      • The Book of Death, #28
      • Journey of Illusion
      • Letter to a Country With No Frontier
      • A Letter to the Children of Qana
      • My People
      • You, Beirut and the Children
      • Introduction to If You Were Mine
      • Sufiya: A Mystical Poem
      • Surprise Attack
      • Exile
      • Chariot of Light
    • My Translations of Other Poets'/Writers' Works >
      • May Ziyadeh: The Return of the Wave
      • Said Akl: When Lebanon Speaks
      • Ameen Albert Rihani: A Train and No Station
      • Mikhail Naimy: Once Upon A Time
      • Mikhail Naimy: Abu Batta and Other Stories
      • Mikhail Naimy: Fathers and Sons - A Play in Four Acts
      • Mikhail Naimy: Inspired by Christ
      • Mikhail Naimy: Sab‘un (Seventy) An Autobiography
      • Mikhail Naimy: al-Ghirbal (The Sieve): Selections Translated into English with an Introduction
      • Tawfiq Yusuf Awwad: A Loaf of Bread (al-Raghif)
      • Tawfiq Yusuf Awwad: The Lame Boy and Other Stories
      • Maroun Abboud: Faces and Stories
      • Maroun Abboud: The Red Prince - A Lebanese Tale
      • Maroun Abboud: Tales from the Village
      • al-Rihaniyyat
      • Munajayat Al-Sab‘in
      • Mahmud Darwish’s poem, “Antithesis”
      • ‘Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati’s: The Byzantine Poems of Abu Firas
      • Gibran’s Unpublished Letters to Archbishop Antonious Bashir
    • Personal Reflections >
      • First Impressions of Lebanon in June 2013
      • The Collapse of a Tradition
  • Professional Activities
    • Lectures
    • Poetry Readings
    • Interviews
    • Conferences
    • Memberships/Committees
    • Management Enrichment
  • Curriculum Vitae
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Forty Years of Bliss
June 21, 2020

My Darling, My Mary Ann,
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
 
I have often wondered why I have been so lucky.
I must have done something right on my previous journey to this planet,
and now I am reaping the reward.
 
When I met you,
I knew that I had discovered a new land of joy,
a whole island of happiness,
a continent of contentment,
a treasure of smiles and laughter,
a planet of love and longing,
a universe of bliss and kindness,
but my darling,
I did not know that our togetherness would chart a new odyssey,
rewrite mythology,
capture the charm of the Arabian Nights,
change the course of history,
and put into practice the teachings of  the Bible forever
because I was given to be luckier than Sinbad,
greater than Odysseus,
richer than Noah,
mightier than Elijah,
chosen like Moses,
more prosperous than Jonah,
and even peaceful like The Son of Man.
 
Forty suitors did Odysseus overcome
because his Penelope, although faithful, was weak.
But my Queen was both faithful and strong.
 
Forty days and nights did the flood of Noah last.
It killed and drowned thousands, and was brutal.
But the flood of love from your heart nourished my loneliness
and watered my spirit and intellect.
 
Forty years the Jews wandered in the desert
searching for the Promised Land,
but when I met you,
my wandering ended,
and in your eyes,
I found my promised land.    
 
Forty years the Jews lived in captivity in Egypt serving Pharaoh,
but for forty years, since the day I married you,
I have been free, only serving the god of love.
 
Forty days and nights did Moses worship and pray on Mount Sinai
waiting for an audience with Jehovah,
but I prayed and was granted an audience with the god of love
the day I stepped into the temple of your heart.
 
Forty days Elijah fasted on Mount Horeb,
so God could hear his prayers,
but you heard my voice calling you
through the labyrinths of time and space,
and opened the doors of eternity
for our togetherness to blossom and become immortal. 
 
Forty days and nights the Son of Man fasted in the desert
and was tempted by Lucifer,
while I was given the elixir of immortality from your lips,
and the nourishing water of life from the fountain of your heart,
and my only temptation
was to continue to remain humble and content
and worthy of this gift.  
 
Forty days and nights those stricken with the plague in Europe
were quarantined outside the city walls
before they were allowed admittance,
but I was instantly granted entry to the garden of your heart
without having to wait for a Quaranta.
 
Forty thieves did Ali Baba fight to secure the entrance to the treasure’s cave through his magical sentence: “Open Sesame”.
I also had to fight the forty evil ones who wanted to claim you
but were unworthy of the dust on your shoes.
Your love gave me the magical potion to slay the dragon
and open the gate to our paradise.   
 
You have been with me since the beginning of time.
We are one.
We are the word, and you are the “I” in the “ME”.
We are inseparable, yet individually we are.
We separately stand next to each other.
For we are the duality in the trinity, the elite dual, the oneness of dualism.
We are tranquility because we are the harmony of motion,
the perfect union between the opposite and the similar.
 
You were with me when the Holy Spirit hovered over the chaos
dividing the light from darkness
and separating the land from the sea.
 
We named all creation,
and we planted the tree of knowledge,
but we did not eat of its fruit.
 
You were with me in Phoenicia, Babylon, Rome, Athens, Byblos, Atlantis, Troy, Carthage, Beirut, Tyre, and in Mesopotamia.
You were there when we built cities,
when we invented the alphabet,
sailed the Mediterranean,
captured the wind,
and set Prometheus free from tyranny.
 
You were with me when I was Aeneas, Odysseus, Prometheus, Hannibal, Gilgamesh, Adonis, Hector, Baal, Peter, Tariq, and Khalid.  
 
We are the alpha and the omega
because we also are without end.
I carry you in my heart an icon of light,
a beacon of hope,
and I hold on to your voice as a guide and a shepherd.
 
That day when I was lost and forgot my way back
after they had cut open my chest
looking to find you there inside of me,
that day, it was your voice that guided me back to you, my Love.
Your voice was the lighthouse that showed my broken sails
the safe harbor of your arms and the warmth of your heart.
I had promised not to leave you,
that I would come back when you called for me.
I never lied to you, or disappointed you,
or wanted you to be left alone
because for us, there is no alone.
This word simply does not exist in our alphabet.
 
Honey, all this is true and important.
All human mythologies, histories, and religions are important,
but what is the most important and the most sacred
is the history that we create together.
 
As I have always told you:
“It is the little things than count the most.”
These are the real “US” during our most innocent, intimate, and spontaneous moments when we:
            Drink our morning coffee together,
            when we take our walks,
            when we sit and  chat,
            and walk holding hands,
            when we sit on the couch,
            watch a movie,
            laugh and comment,
            go to bed together,
            make love like there is no tomorrow,
            cook together
            and do the dishes,
            when you iron my shirts
            and when I rub your feet and your back,
            when I take you in my arms and kiss you
            and say I love you a hundred times a day,
            when we say grace
            and give gratitude for our life together,
            for our love and happiness,
            when we get thrilled because finally
            you are growing your fingernails,
            coloring your toenails,
            and your hair is as long as it used to be
            when I first met you,
            when you allow me to trim your hair,
            and you trim my eyebrows,
            when we sit together in each other’s arms
            and feel peace and tranquility
            because we feel safe,
            we feel that we have arrived
            and that all is well,
            when I buy you three or more dozen roses and flowers
            for our anniversary
            and surprise you and you surprise me back
            with a magical look on your glorious face,
            when we remember
            and re-live our love story from the beginning,
            how we eloped and took a huge leap of faith
            and how we now reap the fruit of our love
            because our faith in ourselves and in God
            was greater than the powers which tried to destroy us.
           
What we did, especially you, took courage
And it was certainly a poetic moment
when we stood under the streetlamp on Binghamton’s campus
after an extremely emotional night,
and you said your most famous four words looking into my eyes:
“TAKE ME WITH YOU.”
 
I felt that my world was about to change forever,
that my life would never be the same,
but I knew that your voice thundering these sacred words
was the voice of destiny
and the powers shaping our future had finally reached their destination
and had taken control of our journey.
 
 We are one my Love
when you read what I write
and appreciate it and correct it with love.
 
Our memories will last forever:
            When you surprised me with a visit to campus
            Forty years ago
            and I knew that you had arrived
            because I smelled your perfume on my way to the library
            even before seeing you.
 
            When our hands touched on our way to the falls in Ithaca
            and we felt the thunderbolt passing through our bodies
            and the river of life running through our hearts and minds,
 
And now we find joy in the simple pleasures of life:
            Like two children
            we get excited when we sell a book on Amazon
            and feel we are reaching out and helping another person
            learn something new.
           
            Like two children
            we stand by the window
            and smile at the birds and the deer
            peacefully playing and eating in our backyard.
 
We are the Poet and the Lover:
            when we touch hands
            and our fingers automatically lock together,
            when we plan a BBQ in the backyard
            and eat outside and remember our daily BBQs in Ithaca
            at 4G Pleasant Grove Apts. or at 134 Graham Road,
            when you smile for me every minute of every day,
            and hand me the sun and the moon
            with every act of kindness and gesture of love,
            when you sit and relax
            and sigh to express your joy and contentment,
            when you sleep in our bed the whole night
            without getting up to watch Blue Bloods,
            when we discuss our finances
            and feel grateful
            because we know that we only have ourselves to depend on,
            when we reminisce about our life,
            our house and friends in Lebanon
            and feel nostalgic and emotional,
            when you prepare my medicine
            and take care of me because you like to,
            and when I fill your glass with water,
            bring your calcium pill,
            and care for you because I want to,
            and because it gives me such joy and gratitude
            simply because I can still do this for you, for us,
            my eternal flower, my garden of Eden, my sweet bird of paradise, my sweet             Mary Ann.
 
These are the moments that count
and will be recorded in the BOOK of Life in Paradise.
Remember what Gibran said:
“He, who does not see the Kingdom of God on this earth, will not see it in the Hereafter.”
 
Every day with you is paradise on earth
and will continue to be ever after,
for he who finds his soulmate
and knows how to keep her
will never lose her again.

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