Lebanese Hymns of Love and War (Part Two)
1 – Glory be to Lebanon and the strength and dignity of man in her, now and
forever.
2 – Oh my Lebanese friend, if only you could witness the politicians, and by
God they are many. Those who deprived politics of its national obligations, you
will see them as they are, without their chameleon skins, parrot tongues, and
raven cloaks. If only you saw them in the mirror of truth and patriotism, you
would curse them and refuse their sedition.
3 – Because Lebanon embodies love, and love embodies God, Lebanon endures.
Fear not, oh Lebanese.
4 – No. The sound of the cannons and the explosions of the bombs and bullets
no longer frighten our women. For the Woman who reared history’s greatest heroes
is able to beget heroism any time.
5 – Those who died in the cause of Lebanon know they live in our hearts and
that to die for Lebanon, is to live.
6 – Never have invaders and oppressors been more powerful than a people
fighting for its survival. Thus we know we will triumph and endure.
7 – Those who sold their homeland and bartered their cause do not even
deserve the curse of history, for he who has neither country nor cause, is
non-existent.
8 – Those whom Lebanon harbored and fed, and carried their cause to the
world, chased her people out, starved and killed them. We will continue to love
them, for what good is it to love only those who love you.
9 – Never before has the Lebanese mother displayed such heroism. She has
always known how to be worthy of motherhood, and now she knows how to be worthy
of Lebanon.
10 – The deer said to the dog: “Why do you insist on chasing me, even if you
continue to fail.” The dog replied: “I want to catch you and take you to my
master.” Answered the deer: “Try again, but know that I run for my life while
you run for others.”
11 – Oh, my friend, your Lebanese brothers will return to their senses, even
if after a long while. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.
12 – The desert has never been able to contain or understand us, for the
enmity between the barrenness of the desert and the cool shade of the fields is
infinite and deep.
13 – A grain of sand said to a drop of water: “Powerful I am and unyielding.
In vain does man try to benefit from me.” The water answered: “You are despised
and ungrateful. You have spent your life near the sea, a neighbor of water, and
have never known the pleasure of quenching your thirst.”
14 – To those whom hatred blinded and savagery possessed, who burned the
books in Lebanon, I say: “Wretched are you. He who invented the Letter once and
bestowed the Alphabet of civilization on the world, is capable of creating the
book once more. For civilization is a continuing dialogue and we are the masters
of culture and conversation.”
15 – To those who defiled the sanctity of Lebanon’s Churches and Mosques, who
stole what was at hand and burned the rest, I say: “Of those idealistic values
and spiritual abodes, you destroyed only the physical, but the spirit preserves.
No wonder, Lebanon is the fountainhead and breath of the spirit.”
16 – Oh mother, when you pray, pray not for me, but pray for Lebanon’s glory.
For all things cease, the earth and sky will pass away and not one clump of
Lebanon’s earth will disappear.
17 – Woman is the mirror of society. Do not destroy the mirror, for sand does
not reflect civilization’s countenance.
18 – The relationship between the bee and the flower is an eternal
conversation. The flower has always been worthy of the conversation.
19 – The day we met I instantly knew how much I loved you. I do not believe
that separation is the measure of love.
20 – Do not blame me for leaving you. The people of the East complicate
matters. They, for example, do not understand love without marriage. Love is a
spiritual relationship, a story of feelings, an epic of emotions, not bound by
conditions or limits. Love is boundless beauty. Never has marriage been the
beginning or the end of love.
21 – I searched for your eyes in my notebooks. I searched in my face, in the
narcissus gardens. I scattered the locks of my hair, and the stars, until the
little bird came and made me understand that God is the filling of your eyes.
Then, I went searching for God.
22 – You will not believe that you have become part of my consciousness, and
that I am in need of your voice, your smile, and your face. I am in need of my
soul and you have become me. True, one week in not enough to sow my love in your
eyes without thorns and suspicions. Therefore, truly I say: “what is not born in
a second will not be born in a generation, and doubt is the kernel of love.”
23 – Yesterday my friend passed away. The flame of life extinguished in his
heart. A strange sniper plucked him. Twice I cried: once, because his rifle was
not with him, and again, because the foreign sniper’s bullet came through the
window of my neighbor, who is from my country.
24 – When will we all become Lebanese? As long as we abuse the message of
Jesus and Mohammad, it is not possible for us to embrace love. Let Them leave
us, for we still are not worthy of Lebanon.
25 – I will not believe that the soldiers of Lebanon, upon whose shoulders we
rest our trust, upon whose heads rest the Cedars, and in whose right hand is the
sword of Fakhr al-Deen, those who have breathed freedom and dignity, would turn
their spears to Lebanon’s breast and upon the Lebanese themselves. I will not
believe that one single Lebanese soldier is a traitor. They are all worthy of
the Vow, worthy of the trust. I will not believe in this lie. I will not deny
God.
26 – Never have the cultures of the world existed in Lebanon as has the
culture of Lebanon permeated the world. It is not a matter of power and size,
but of personality, generosity and genius.
27 – In the name of the one Lebanon, Lebanon the true, the good and the
beautiful, Lebanon the fair and just, the human, the free and civilized. I call
upon you, oh Lebanese, to unite. For it will avail you naught if you gain
everything and lose Lebanon.
28 – Because I truly love you I have become a child again, as old as a lily.
Never has love been for any, save for children. Adults, if they innocently
loved, would become child-like, if not, what would they have to do with
love?
29 – A heart without love is like a rose without fragrance, and a man without
love is created incomplete.
30 – I cannot imagine myself as other than a lover. You have penetrated the
pores of my body to the depths. You live within me and in every moment in the
space of my existence. Do not ask where. The flower knows that it is the
fragrance, not knowing the source of it. For the flower does not know itself
save for the fragrance. I breath love. For breathing, like love, is an act of
unity.
31 – Do not cry. You do not realize that your eyes are two mines of pearls,
and that all the jewels of the world are not worth one pearl glittering upon
your cheek for which the arbors of the dew crave when the sun is born.
32 – I do not know why I love you or what I love in you. Do not ask me, for
love is like faith, an inner feeling of joy and tranquility. As for man, either
he believes or not. It is not a matter of choice.
33 – We in Lebanon, are free from birth, and our freedom spans eternity. From
among us arose the hosts of the martyrs bearing the cross of salvation to the
enslaved peoples. From among us came forth the apostles preaching freedom and
independence. And after that, today, come they who test our faith in freedom and
heroism. To them I say: “ours is the quarry of manhood and ours are the swords
of heroism. Never have the swords been for other than Men. We welcome you.
34 – Show me a people under the sun that love life as we and know how to live
as we. Also, show me a people who abstain from life as we, buying death because
they also know how to die as we. I do not exaggerate when I say that we are
makers of glory and builders of civilization and history.
35 – Oh my friend, groom of the virgin Cedars. Oh, martyr of Lebanon. You
were magnificent in your glorious life and heroism and you are magnificent
today, for Lebanon’s flag shields your brave heart. I know you well. Even in
your glorious death you would want us to be worthy of your heroism and manhood.
Forgive me if I cannot help a tear from flowing the hour of your parting, but I
promise you, we are behind you, marching until we free Lebanon.
36 – The time of religious terror and sectarian fanaticism is over. Religion,
in essence, is intrinsically a message of open-mindedness, benevolence,
tolerance, and love. While we in Lebanon gaze to the sun and attempt to embrace
knowledge and free ourselves from the strictures of religion, and after we dared
to declare that religion is for God and Lebanon is for all, we stumbled and
fell, because a group of politicians and other merchants of naïve corruption,
are unable to understand Lebanon except on the basis of religion, factionalism,
and class divisions that only serve their interests. Poor Lebanon: victim of
selfishness, hatred and religion. But not for long.
37 – The day your eyes told me of the friendship that was jasmine colored ,
and your smile, from which the sun learned to rise every morning, unfolded the
tale of the ocean and the shore - - that day, I knew that my enduring village
would not fall, because the woman in my village knows how to sow into the hearts
and forearms of our men the strength of honor and the stubbornness of the
Cedars crowned mountains whose emblem is sovereignty and loyalty.
38 – Those who fight us with every kind of weapon and means, and hire
mercenaries of every creed and color, who inflame the fronts in every place and
time, for what are they waiting? If they were capable of triumph they would not
have delayed. We have not lost a round until now and will not lose. Our history
is witness to this. The oil of the desert will dry, our proud blood will not.
The mercenaries, numerous as the sands, we will lead to annihilation. I say
sincerely: “you have tried arms, money, and terror, but you have taken nothing,
not even a stretch of land. For our land which gives forth pine and laurel, also
gives forth men and redeemers. Only with Love can our land and her people be
taken.”
39 – Our countryside, is wonders of enchantment and sensitivity, tableaus of
captivating beauty over the expanse of our mountains, but for whose sake the
moon would not rise. And the tales of the shepherds and flocks are the songs of
evening conversation on moonlit nights. Oh God, do not deny us the gentleness of
the countryside and do not hurry the urban complication to it.
40 – When the fields and pastures of my village breathe, all the perfume
factories of the world shut down. The lungs of the earth open to the smell of
the laurel and basil, the fragrance of the camomille. Then the wings of the
breeze are spread, carrying the gifts of spring to every corner of the land. Oh
people, the burden of beauty is upon you. Let our fields breathe.
41 – The birds of winter, alone in their nests, know what transpires between
the drops of rain and the roof tiles of our mountain home. This conversation,
long as the cold days and nights, the birds memorize until spring comes, when
they go out to announce to the trees and breeze these wintery words, cool and
refreshing. Then the trees become pregnant with fruit, the breeze applauds and
invigorates the hearts and faces, and in the heat of summer awakens a gentleness
not of its nature.
42 – Your distant face, veiled behind space and time, is an icon of light, my
love. Between us, are barriers of outsiders and the bulwarks of sand and
enemies. Between us are months of black separation, colored by the hatred in the
hearts of those who battle us. Letters of longing between us became the mouths
of cannons and the bullets of the snipers. This time, possessed by the dust of
death and swinging between the jaws of horror and destruction, is changing from
bad to worse. This deluge of blood, in its abundance, carries the dryness in its
own eyes. I bid you persevere. Do not retreat. The encounter with the season of
love will return, drawn upon the kerchiefs of the mothers and the red cheeks of
the tulips. I tell you that your face, the icon of light, will rise again. Do
not retreat.
43 – Every time summer comes after the seasons’ journey, and the eyes of the
grain are set aflame with rays of blessing, and every time the nest of the bird
living under our red roof is visited by a new helpless wing, I feel, my love,
that we have grown a year and that our love sprouts anew.
44 – Our sea, this blue spring whose color is the bird of love, feels that it
is an extension of us, sleeping only on our shores, not travelling except on our
ships, which each time it sails on a new journey, beauty abounds, genius and
civilization sprout in another part of the world, and creativity gives rise to
cities, citadels, and manuscripts. Our seagoing ships, whose cargo is from our
mountains, our hearts, and forearms – protect them, oh God, from the sharks of
the other seas and from the whales of hatred and ignorance.
45 – The genuine silk shawls which the young women of my village wove with
love, eyelashes and tender fingertips, are gifts to the youths returning from
the battlefields of honor and heroism which do not fit any save those who redeem
Lebanon with their souls and deserve the pleasure of the honorable life in the
shade of sovereignty and freedom.
46 – Your eyes are two islands of sadness and rain. The roaring wave in their
two skies almost uproots all the trees of joy from the garden of my life. I know
that in your eyes, and behind their sadness, are decades of war, death, and
despair. And you, as much as you try to close your eyes, you will not be able to
comprehend that barbarous time. You are dejected, even unto death. The traces of
the barbarians and mercenaries show on your pale face, and frustrated look, your
black and horrified hair, on your breast, raped of its beauty, and your frowning
lips. Beirut, my sun-colored beloved, do not despair. I am with you until
revenge and until we drive them all, barbarians of another age, and until you
return betrothed. None are worthy of you except the monarchs of great Kingdoms.
47 – By God, my friend, this insane time, insane from head to toe, has
altered many things and thoughts in my being. Every time we meet, despite the
shelling, the sniping, and the terror, and every time we part, I feel that I am
going for the last time, seeing you for the last time. Believe me, I am not
afraid of death itself. Death is only a moment of transition and change. My fear
stems from my attachment to Lebanon, my mother, and to you. I love you unto
death, this is my weakness and my strength, because only for your sakes I
endure, my beloved ones, unto death.
[Originally written in Arabic and Translated by Allen Lederman and George Nicolas El-Hage.
1 – Glory be to Lebanon and the strength and dignity of man in her, now and
forever.
2 – Oh my Lebanese friend, if only you could witness the politicians, and by
God they are many. Those who deprived politics of its national obligations, you
will see them as they are, without their chameleon skins, parrot tongues, and
raven cloaks. If only you saw them in the mirror of truth and patriotism, you
would curse them and refuse their sedition.
3 – Because Lebanon embodies love, and love embodies God, Lebanon endures.
Fear not, oh Lebanese.
4 – No. The sound of the cannons and the explosions of the bombs and bullets
no longer frighten our women. For the Woman who reared history’s greatest heroes
is able to beget heroism any time.
5 – Those who died in the cause of Lebanon know they live in our hearts and
that to die for Lebanon, is to live.
6 – Never have invaders and oppressors been more powerful than a people
fighting for its survival. Thus we know we will triumph and endure.
7 – Those who sold their homeland and bartered their cause do not even
deserve the curse of history, for he who has neither country nor cause, is
non-existent.
8 – Those whom Lebanon harbored and fed, and carried their cause to the
world, chased her people out, starved and killed them. We will continue to love
them, for what good is it to love only those who love you.
9 – Never before has the Lebanese mother displayed such heroism. She has
always known how to be worthy of motherhood, and now she knows how to be worthy
of Lebanon.
10 – The deer said to the dog: “Why do you insist on chasing me, even if you
continue to fail.” The dog replied: “I want to catch you and take you to my
master.” Answered the deer: “Try again, but know that I run for my life while
you run for others.”
11 – Oh, my friend, your Lebanese brothers will return to their senses, even
if after a long while. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.
12 – The desert has never been able to contain or understand us, for the
enmity between the barrenness of the desert and the cool shade of the fields is
infinite and deep.
13 – A grain of sand said to a drop of water: “Powerful I am and unyielding.
In vain does man try to benefit from me.” The water answered: “You are despised
and ungrateful. You have spent your life near the sea, a neighbor of water, and
have never known the pleasure of quenching your thirst.”
14 – To those whom hatred blinded and savagery possessed, who burned the
books in Lebanon, I say: “Wretched are you. He who invented the Letter once and
bestowed the Alphabet of civilization on the world, is capable of creating the
book once more. For civilization is a continuing dialogue and we are the masters
of culture and conversation.”
15 – To those who defiled the sanctity of Lebanon’s Churches and Mosques, who
stole what was at hand and burned the rest, I say: “Of those idealistic values
and spiritual abodes, you destroyed only the physical, but the spirit preserves.
No wonder, Lebanon is the fountainhead and breath of the spirit.”
16 – Oh mother, when you pray, pray not for me, but pray for Lebanon’s glory.
For all things cease, the earth and sky will pass away and not one clump of
Lebanon’s earth will disappear.
17 – Woman is the mirror of society. Do not destroy the mirror, for sand does
not reflect civilization’s countenance.
18 – The relationship between the bee and the flower is an eternal
conversation. The flower has always been worthy of the conversation.
19 – The day we met I instantly knew how much I loved you. I do not believe
that separation is the measure of love.
20 – Do not blame me for leaving you. The people of the East complicate
matters. They, for example, do not understand love without marriage. Love is a
spiritual relationship, a story of feelings, an epic of emotions, not bound by
conditions or limits. Love is boundless beauty. Never has marriage been the
beginning or the end of love.
21 – I searched for your eyes in my notebooks. I searched in my face, in the
narcissus gardens. I scattered the locks of my hair, and the stars, until the
little bird came and made me understand that God is the filling of your eyes.
Then, I went searching for God.
22 – You will not believe that you have become part of my consciousness, and
that I am in need of your voice, your smile, and your face. I am in need of my
soul and you have become me. True, one week in not enough to sow my love in your
eyes without thorns and suspicions. Therefore, truly I say: “what is not born in
a second will not be born in a generation, and doubt is the kernel of love.”
23 – Yesterday my friend passed away. The flame of life extinguished in his
heart. A strange sniper plucked him. Twice I cried: once, because his rifle was
not with him, and again, because the foreign sniper’s bullet came through the
window of my neighbor, who is from my country.
24 – When will we all become Lebanese? As long as we abuse the message of
Jesus and Mohammad, it is not possible for us to embrace love. Let Them leave
us, for we still are not worthy of Lebanon.
25 – I will not believe that the soldiers of Lebanon, upon whose shoulders we
rest our trust, upon whose heads rest the Cedars, and in whose right hand is the
sword of Fakhr al-Deen, those who have breathed freedom and dignity, would turn
their spears to Lebanon’s breast and upon the Lebanese themselves. I will not
believe that one single Lebanese soldier is a traitor. They are all worthy of
the Vow, worthy of the trust. I will not believe in this lie. I will not deny
God.
26 – Never have the cultures of the world existed in Lebanon as has the
culture of Lebanon permeated the world. It is not a matter of power and size,
but of personality, generosity and genius.
27 – In the name of the one Lebanon, Lebanon the true, the good and the
beautiful, Lebanon the fair and just, the human, the free and civilized. I call
upon you, oh Lebanese, to unite. For it will avail you naught if you gain
everything and lose Lebanon.
28 – Because I truly love you I have become a child again, as old as a lily.
Never has love been for any, save for children. Adults, if they innocently
loved, would become child-like, if not, what would they have to do with
love?
29 – A heart without love is like a rose without fragrance, and a man without
love is created incomplete.
30 – I cannot imagine myself as other than a lover. You have penetrated the
pores of my body to the depths. You live within me and in every moment in the
space of my existence. Do not ask where. The flower knows that it is the
fragrance, not knowing the source of it. For the flower does not know itself
save for the fragrance. I breath love. For breathing, like love, is an act of
unity.
31 – Do not cry. You do not realize that your eyes are two mines of pearls,
and that all the jewels of the world are not worth one pearl glittering upon
your cheek for which the arbors of the dew crave when the sun is born.
32 – I do not know why I love you or what I love in you. Do not ask me, for
love is like faith, an inner feeling of joy and tranquility. As for man, either
he believes or not. It is not a matter of choice.
33 – We in Lebanon, are free from birth, and our freedom spans eternity. From
among us arose the hosts of the martyrs bearing the cross of salvation to the
enslaved peoples. From among us came forth the apostles preaching freedom and
independence. And after that, today, come they who test our faith in freedom and
heroism. To them I say: “ours is the quarry of manhood and ours are the swords
of heroism. Never have the swords been for other than Men. We welcome you.
34 – Show me a people under the sun that love life as we and know how to live
as we. Also, show me a people who abstain from life as we, buying death because
they also know how to die as we. I do not exaggerate when I say that we are
makers of glory and builders of civilization and history.
35 – Oh my friend, groom of the virgin Cedars. Oh, martyr of Lebanon. You
were magnificent in your glorious life and heroism and you are magnificent
today, for Lebanon’s flag shields your brave heart. I know you well. Even in
your glorious death you would want us to be worthy of your heroism and manhood.
Forgive me if I cannot help a tear from flowing the hour of your parting, but I
promise you, we are behind you, marching until we free Lebanon.
36 – The time of religious terror and sectarian fanaticism is over. Religion,
in essence, is intrinsically a message of open-mindedness, benevolence,
tolerance, and love. While we in Lebanon gaze to the sun and attempt to embrace
knowledge and free ourselves from the strictures of religion, and after we dared
to declare that religion is for God and Lebanon is for all, we stumbled and
fell, because a group of politicians and other merchants of naïve corruption,
are unable to understand Lebanon except on the basis of religion, factionalism,
and class divisions that only serve their interests. Poor Lebanon: victim of
selfishness, hatred and religion. But not for long.
37 – The day your eyes told me of the friendship that was jasmine colored ,
and your smile, from which the sun learned to rise every morning, unfolded the
tale of the ocean and the shore - - that day, I knew that my enduring village
would not fall, because the woman in my village knows how to sow into the hearts
and forearms of our men the strength of honor and the stubbornness of the
Cedars crowned mountains whose emblem is sovereignty and loyalty.
38 – Those who fight us with every kind of weapon and means, and hire
mercenaries of every creed and color, who inflame the fronts in every place and
time, for what are they waiting? If they were capable of triumph they would not
have delayed. We have not lost a round until now and will not lose. Our history
is witness to this. The oil of the desert will dry, our proud blood will not.
The mercenaries, numerous as the sands, we will lead to annihilation. I say
sincerely: “you have tried arms, money, and terror, but you have taken nothing,
not even a stretch of land. For our land which gives forth pine and laurel, also
gives forth men and redeemers. Only with Love can our land and her people be
taken.”
39 – Our countryside, is wonders of enchantment and sensitivity, tableaus of
captivating beauty over the expanse of our mountains, but for whose sake the
moon would not rise. And the tales of the shepherds and flocks are the songs of
evening conversation on moonlit nights. Oh God, do not deny us the gentleness of
the countryside and do not hurry the urban complication to it.
40 – When the fields and pastures of my village breathe, all the perfume
factories of the world shut down. The lungs of the earth open to the smell of
the laurel and basil, the fragrance of the camomille. Then the wings of the
breeze are spread, carrying the gifts of spring to every corner of the land. Oh
people, the burden of beauty is upon you. Let our fields breathe.
41 – The birds of winter, alone in their nests, know what transpires between
the drops of rain and the roof tiles of our mountain home. This conversation,
long as the cold days and nights, the birds memorize until spring comes, when
they go out to announce to the trees and breeze these wintery words, cool and
refreshing. Then the trees become pregnant with fruit, the breeze applauds and
invigorates the hearts and faces, and in the heat of summer awakens a gentleness
not of its nature.
42 – Your distant face, veiled behind space and time, is an icon of light, my
love. Between us, are barriers of outsiders and the bulwarks of sand and
enemies. Between us are months of black separation, colored by the hatred in the
hearts of those who battle us. Letters of longing between us became the mouths
of cannons and the bullets of the snipers. This time, possessed by the dust of
death and swinging between the jaws of horror and destruction, is changing from
bad to worse. This deluge of blood, in its abundance, carries the dryness in its
own eyes. I bid you persevere. Do not retreat. The encounter with the season of
love will return, drawn upon the kerchiefs of the mothers and the red cheeks of
the tulips. I tell you that your face, the icon of light, will rise again. Do
not retreat.
43 – Every time summer comes after the seasons’ journey, and the eyes of the
grain are set aflame with rays of blessing, and every time the nest of the bird
living under our red roof is visited by a new helpless wing, I feel, my love,
that we have grown a year and that our love sprouts anew.
44 – Our sea, this blue spring whose color is the bird of love, feels that it
is an extension of us, sleeping only on our shores, not travelling except on our
ships, which each time it sails on a new journey, beauty abounds, genius and
civilization sprout in another part of the world, and creativity gives rise to
cities, citadels, and manuscripts. Our seagoing ships, whose cargo is from our
mountains, our hearts, and forearms – protect them, oh God, from the sharks of
the other seas and from the whales of hatred and ignorance.
45 – The genuine silk shawls which the young women of my village wove with
love, eyelashes and tender fingertips, are gifts to the youths returning from
the battlefields of honor and heroism which do not fit any save those who redeem
Lebanon with their souls and deserve the pleasure of the honorable life in the
shade of sovereignty and freedom.
46 – Your eyes are two islands of sadness and rain. The roaring wave in their
two skies almost uproots all the trees of joy from the garden of my life. I know
that in your eyes, and behind their sadness, are decades of war, death, and
despair. And you, as much as you try to close your eyes, you will not be able to
comprehend that barbarous time. You are dejected, even unto death. The traces of
the barbarians and mercenaries show on your pale face, and frustrated look, your
black and horrified hair, on your breast, raped of its beauty, and your frowning
lips. Beirut, my sun-colored beloved, do not despair. I am with you until
revenge and until we drive them all, barbarians of another age, and until you
return betrothed. None are worthy of you except the monarchs of great Kingdoms.
47 – By God, my friend, this insane time, insane from head to toe, has
altered many things and thoughts in my being. Every time we meet, despite the
shelling, the sniping, and the terror, and every time we part, I feel that I am
going for the last time, seeing you for the last time. Believe me, I am not
afraid of death itself. Death is only a moment of transition and change. My fear
stems from my attachment to Lebanon, my mother, and to you. I love you unto
death, this is my weakness and my strength, because only for your sakes I
endure, my beloved ones, unto death.
[Originally written in Arabic and Translated by Allen Lederman and George Nicolas El-Hage.
