Nizar Qabbani Will Surprise You with his Lyrical and Evocative Imagery

I feel a special connection to the Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani (“Kabbani” in some cases). My wedding had two readings of Arabic poems, including one of Qabbani’s. His poetry was the perfect addition to our ceremony, as his work is full of vivid imagery and deep expressions of love. To be honest, his prolific output (over 50 collections published in his lifetime!) covers a range of subjects, from love to politics, to social issues and more. But he is best known for his love poetry, where his simple style and everyday language resonated with young and old alike.

In particular, I love how Nizar Qabbani uses natural imagery to strengthen his short phrases and stanzas. How he blends the life of a poet directly into his depictions of love. And how his poetry beautifully captured the feelings of our wedding day. In this post we’ll explore all of this, studying the different imagery in Qabbani’s love poems.

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Nizar Qabbani – a Brief Biography

Nizar Qabbani was born in 1923 in Damascus, then part of French-controlled Syria. He grew up in a middle class family, and attended university in Damascus to study law. After graduation, Qabbani became a diplomat however, representing Syria around the world in Ankara, Beijing, Beirut, Cairo, London and Madrid. He wrote during this period, but eventually retired from the diplomatic corps in 1966 to focus exclusively on his poetry.

Qabbani began writing poems at an early age, perhaps as young as 14, and published his first collection of love poems in 1944. His work was an instant success, garnering national attention before spreading across the Arab world. His direct, open style contrasted with the stricter, more formal nature of traditional Arabic poetry. In addition, Qabbani combined colloquial vocabulary into his poems, as well as modern issues and terminology. Renowned for his passionate poems about love and beauty, he was also a fierce defender of women’s rights and even delved into political issues.

Love Through the Beauty of Nature

Qabbani frequently uses descriptions of nature, flowers, and animals to better illustrate his feelings. Look at the Arabic above, translated below by Bassam K. Frangieh and Clementine R. Brown in Arabian Love Poems. We start with a surprising question, since comparing one person to the enormity of the sky seems impossible… But, in the span of a few words, Qabbani eloquently turns this into a stunning profession of love.

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.

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In another case (translated by Lena Jayyusi and W. S. Merwin in the collection On Entering the Sea), we delve directly into the author’s feelings. His lover’s smallest movements hit him with enormous power — shattering the moon, and pulling water from solid stone. Qabbani’s words conjure vivid images, flipping simple pictures into a brilliant illustration of a man in love.

You are no ordinary woman

You are astonishment itself … the guessing

at what is to come unexpectedly

How is it that in a moment

of discovery and inspiration

you extract water from the heart of a stone?

How is it that with the touch of an eyelash

you turn the solitary moon

into a thousand crescents?

Love in Words and Literature

Qabbani also weaves the act of writing into his poetry. He narrates openly as a poet sometimes, citing how his feelings of love affect his poetic work. In the Arabic above (my translation below), Qabbani combines natural elements with the act of writing. Being in love completely changes the words and poetry in his notebooks. In this fashion, the reader sees love directly through the poet’s eyes.

When I am in love

I become a liquid light

invisible to the eye

and the poems in my notebooks

become fields of mimosas and daisies.

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In another love poem, Nizar Qabbani references reading, writing, science and the arts. In a quest to define love, he looks everywhere — in popular literature and songs, scientific works, and more. See this excerpt of the longer poem:

What is love?

We have read a thousand treatises on it

and still do not know what we have read

read works of interpretation, astrology, and medicine

and do not know where we began

we have memorized the whole of folk literature

poetry and song

and remember not a single line

we have asked the sages of love about their state

and discover that they knew no more than we do

(excerpt of “What is Love?” translated by Lena Jayyusi and W. S. Merwin in the collection On Entering the Sea)

My Connection to Qabbani

As I mentioned above, I feel a special connection to Qabbani due to the inclusion of his poetry in our wedding ceremony. I’m especially lucky that our friend Maisa hand-wrote her reading in beautifully styled calligraphy. A small section of her work is above. Maisa’s full piece features another two stanzas, encircled by delicately sketched vines and curls.

In this poem, Nizar Qabbani uses travel imagery, a feature I particularly enjoy. Not only do I adore traveling, but I relish this metaphor about trains. Some loves are short and pass quickly, like trains that come and go. But not true love. True love is the last train, the final station.

I love you

I do not want to link you with any memory of the past

nor with the memory of passing trains

you are the last train; night and day it travels

across the veins of my hands

You are the last train

and I am your last station.

(excerpt of “My Sweetheart on the New Year” translated by Lena Jayyusi and Christopher Middleton in On Entering the Sea)

What Next?

Want to read more poems by Nizar Qabbani, see other examples of his evocative imagery? The two collections cited above have many more of his love poems, beautifully translated into English from the original Arabic. Find On Entering the Sea and Arabian Love Poems at your neighborhood bookstore, your local library, or at online sites like Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, or Powell’s.

Then join the conversation here on the blog! Tell us what you thought about these poems, like which were your favorites and why. Had you heard of Nizar Qabbani before? What other Arab poets have you read? Drop a quick note in the comments section below or send me an email here.

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Lastly, don’t forget to read about the other places and things we’ve profiled earlier on this blog. Recently, we’ve explored six authors of Kuwaiti literature, learned about great Ramadan books to read to your kids, seen some spectacular decor in the Regional Theater of Oran in Algeria, and witnessed the majestic natural beauty of Fujairah, the eastern most emirate in the UAE.