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Ounsi el-Hajj Quotes

Ounsi el-Hajj was a Lebanese poet, journalist, and translator.

✵ 1937 – 14. February 2014
Ounsi el-Hajj photo
Ounsi el-Hajj: 2 quotes0 likes

Ounsi el-Hajj Quotes

“I shall not stop,
I shall not stop
Beneath the moon clothed in white,
Drowning in the morrow
With a fast-beating heart.
You remain mine, when I am aware,
You remain mine, when I am unaware.
There, in the dome of mist,
In the wells of spacious churches,
In festivals
And the glimmering of windows,
The fields of folk-song,
The desperate hum of din,
The departure of ships and wine,
You remain mine.
The shriveled and the fresh stop short,
And the earth stretches forth its head
And pursues us from word to word,
From bird
To bird
I heard from afar,
And when I tried to approach,
You held up your hand.
I heard from afar
And saw the ancient peoples
There, beyond the woods.”

Ounsi el-Hajj

An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, p. 73
Poetry, A Cup

“A group of women around a shattered man.
I said with a smile: Let's call him Qais, Laila's mad lover.
The termperature sank abruptly.
Never in my life did I see eyes like those with trailing dresses.
The moment I left him they had, of course, to come after me.
And there they waited for me, one after the other.
I was in a rural city, a strange place on the banks of a river.
And even without my smiling, the shattered man had tired me.
It was in the old house that our meeting took place, and my jokes turned into blood.
I killed them with classic boredom.”

Ounsi el-Hajj

An Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry, p. 75
Poetry, Rendezvous

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