Space Is The Place

"Hubb'' (حُب ) is love

"Ishq" (عشق) is love that entwines two people together

"Shagaf" (شغف) is love that nests in the chambers of the heart

"Huyam" (هيام\هام) is love that wanders the earth

"Tayam" (تیم /تام) is love in which you lose yourself

"Walah" (وله) is love that carries sorrow within it

"Sababah" (صبابة\صب) is love that exudes from your pores

"Hawa" (‘هوى) is love that shares its name with air and ‘falling’

"Gharam (غرام) is love that is willing to pay the price.

Translation: I will sew a necklace for you from the stars of sky

I hadn’t told them about you, but they saw you bathing in my eyes.

I hadn’t told them about you, but they saw you in my written words

The perfume of love can not be concealed

And when you, like me and my SO on our holiday trip, decide to do a evening walk through the city, you might encounter lots of stairs where you can't exactly spot the end. Like these:

Nizar Qabbani is my favorite Arabic poet without a doubt, his romantic poetry is so immaculate and beautiful. Here are some examples, even though the translations really don't do them justice:

My Lover asks me:

“What is the difference between me and the sky?”

The difference, my Love,

Is that when you laugh,

I forget about the sky

In the summer

I stretch out on the shore

And think of you

Had I told the sea

What I felt for you,

It would have left its shores,

Its shells,

Its fish,

And followed me.

Undress,

for long ages have passed

since a miracle has touched this world.

Undress, undress,

for I am mute

but your body speaks every language

You still ask me about the day of my birth

So write down what you don’t know

The day you declared your love

Is the day of my birth.

When God bestowed women on men

And gave you to me.

I felt

He was clearly biased toward me

And that He violated

All His heavenly books.

He gave me the wine

But gave other men the wheat,

He clothed me in silk

But clothed those men in cotton,

He gave me the rose

But gave them the thorn.

And of course, best for last:

When I told you:

“I love you.”

I knew

I was leading a coup

Against the tribal law.

That I was tolling the bells of scandal.

I wanted to seize power

To increase the number of leaves

In the forests.

I wanted to make the oceans bluer

And the children more innocent.

I wanted to put an end to the savage age

And to kill the last Caliph.

It was my intentions

When I loved you

To break down the doors of the harem.

To protect women’s breasts

From men’s teeth:

So that their nipples could

Dance in the air with delight.

When I said:

"I love you."

I knew I was inventing a new alphabet

For a city that does not read.

I was reciting my poems

In an empty hall.

And I was offering wine

To those who did not know

The joys of drunkenness.

When I said:

"I love you."

I knew

Savages would follow me

With poison spears,

With bows and arrows.

My photograph would be plastered

On all walls.

My fingerprints

Would be distributed to all police stations.

A big reward

Would be given

To whomever carried my head to them

To be hung at the city gates

Like a Palestinian orange.

When I wrote your name

On the notebook of roses

I knew

All the illiterate

All the sick and impotent men

Would stand against me.

When I decided to kill the last Caliph

To announce

The establishment of a state of love

Crowning you as its Queen.

I knew

Only the birds

Would sing of the revolution with me.

عُيُونُك الْمِلْيَانَةُ جَمَالٌ تَجْعَلُ قَلْبِي يَتَأَلَّمُ

Your eyes full of beauty make my heart ache ~

عيناك البحر الوحيد الذي لا أخشى الغرق فيه...

Your eyes, the only ocean I'm not afraid to drown in...