Translated from Arabic by: Paula abdul Ahad
DIDGERIDOO
-1-
What's this captivating sound?
It's elating,
Exciting..
I'd like it to go on and on.
The original inhabitant
Who's surrounding me with his love
Dancing with his feast..
If you wish to console me by a sound
Play for me the Didgeridoo.
-2-
The Aborigine has made it round reed,
Higher than him,
It succumbs him when he blows,
His breath always bows to it..
But when he blows!!
He creates this captivating sound.
-3-
Click - Sticks..
The dust is overflowing
Surrounding
Due to the tanned steps
The field was stirred up,
Blown up..
When they turned,
The evening was turned on
And life started to turn..
**
UNEMPLOYED
-1-
Dragging his feet and scared,
He is not used to begging,
Has not seen or stepped into (C.E.S.),
He created a space
Between him and this place.
-2-
He's Lebanese..
Who's picked his sweat,
Spent his expatriation painstaking
And hard work.
I saw him standing anxious,
I asked,
He delayed with the answer:
- I'm just asking for a job,
I feel like I've been out of my body for long time,
Living silently,
The factories became sick of my face,
The sun is too bored to share my morning,
I want a job, any job,
To help me
And my family to survive.
Jobless,
Unemployed,
This encumbrance is killing me
Heavier than money's needs!!
-3-
.. They called him,
And tears came out of his shy eyes.
Death, he said,
But do not Say:
Move it, don't be lazy.
**
COFFS HARBOUR
-1-
Abla was driving the car
While my mind was occupied
With the green banana fields
Which were saying:
Here you are,
Come and taste,
You're welcome in and we're out,
Our visitor has the right.
The (Big Banana)
Stood with its lovely figure
Taking my eye's pupil as its mirror,
Undressing itself for me
And Leila is saying to me:
Hold your breath.
-2-
Coffs Harbour..
We'll never forget it,
We lit three candles,
We celebrated our anniversary,
Wrote it with our tears as a song
And drew magnificent pictures of it
On its spoiled sand
Which climbed up to Abla's waist
Trying to hide her
And go further and further up!
**
SYDNEY
-1-
You are the dream
Which lived in my mind for years,
Its traces didn't wipe out.
I picked you off my parent's laughter,
Off confused eyes' prayers..
O, Sydney..
Which stood calling me
On a shore..
I kissed its dust.
I loved you:
Field's madness,
Mountains..
Which flew off their puberty.
-2-
Kings Cross
The beautiful nights
Tanned on far shores
Used to warmly welcome
To a party with new friends.
I hope days move slowly
And keep us young
To go higher on higher waves
To burn and turn into ashes.
**
SURFERS PARADISE
-1-
Your name is Paradise,
Your beach is heaven,
Your sun is wooing another sun
And your sand is resonant,
On its sound..
Whispering becomes exciting..
Purified raw-gold,
Yellow,
Brown,
Where beauty loves to be encompassed.
-2-
Surfers..
You're turning me mad!
In you..
I'd like to be forever locked up.
Your wave..
Oh..
Comes out of my mouth,
It takes away spirit
And gives back another!
-3-
I visited you with Abla once.
She didn't want to come back home.
She fell in love with you
And that love destroyed my heart.
The word (if only)
Wasn't of use anymore.
I was so jealous..
And when I become as such,
My blood boils and burns like oil.
You have visitors everyday
Don't say you only admired her..
Give my Abla back
And put down the fire.
I admired her long before you did.
**
TAREE
-1-
Abla loved to wipe the night out in you,
To spread my arms,
To take Canopus her mirror
Which gathered in my eye.
She thought your wave is the horse
And my chest is the saddle and the cap.
She flew by us to the other side
And nearly drowned in me.
-2-
She loves to walk on the beach
And tells the sand a story about a village,
The duck adores,
Sprinkling like a star..
About Taree,
Where boons landed as harvest.
Between Abla and Taree
My heart landed
And picking became harder.
**
AUSSIE
-1-
I loved you from the first sight..
I closed my eyes and hid you,
I saw you as my fulfilled dream
A life-boat rescuing a drowned world.
-2-
O, heartbeat
I threw you in my heart..
Who dried the lily flowers?
Who dusted your face?
Who ripped that look?
Which put a parting
Between paucity and plenary
This distresses your people.
Their situation is agitating.
I wish you stand on the glory hills
... and blow mercury bubbles!
-3-
Mum..
You gave me your house away
And named me with an adorned name
Aussie..
How nice this name is
For whom, who loves you today and always.
I'll tell about your oil smear
Your love
Your glory.
I'll tell about the life you gave
Without you it wouldn't have passed,
In four directions
I saw you as a song
With a whooping note.
Your good reputation is over the stars,
Your palm is generosity
And your name is a flag.
**
YOU, I AND THE TOWER
-1-
From Sydney Tower
And space is dark
I saw the land planted with light,
I saw the aurora riding a horse
Its steps are like printed stars.
-2-
I saw the moon's eye winking at the waves
And letting the lights dance on the water.
You're opposite me filming the views
And the camera is my eye.
-3-
I don't know if it was me
Or the tower who was drunk.
The world was running opposite it,
Its head was full
It shook it with boredom
And knitted the evening its scarf.
-4-
Like a lie, the fog showed up
Waking the rain
Which was escaping the hunger,
Wiping shores
Smeared with fire,
Scratching windows with its tears.
-5-
The rain had neither abolished a dream
Nor smothered a city
I've hidden Sydney in the film,
My beloved
Hide me in your heart.
**
AVALON
-1-
Avalon..
The warm beach,
Its waves wake my imagination,
Under the tree I drew a small distance
Which my space can not bind.
On the trunk of the tree
My shoulders left a print
To talk about me.
-2-
In Avalon
I poured out my feelings.
Its rocks
Seemed to me like mountains!
If its waves assailed my rocks
The sands will laugh under the waves.
Off its sun
I'm begging my light..
Between Avalon and me
There is a good bond.
**
CANBERRA
-1-
I hang my love as a decoration on the trees,
O, Canberra
A forest in a city.
I thought I was (Griffin) the architect
And your land is the panel
Your buildings are the pens
But I couldn't draw
Don't reproach me.
-2-
Your soil's smell perfumed forest
Fenced with mountains don't kneel..
The snow landed on their rock
And cooled down,
Burnt up its feelings,
And spilled the moans
To warm up a lake, wider than the sea.
-3-
Your blonde houses showered in the shade
And dried up with light green.
Their trees dropped wet leaves,
Baptised unmatched streets
Which spread its palms
As theatres for the air.
**
LYGON STREET
-1-
I love you..
I said to a pretty brunette,
As young as a gardenia.
A girl from Melbourne with a blooming face
And red rose cheeks.
Lygon Street lit by her
By her smile
Which threw me by a live coal.
Help me Lygon
To spend an evening
With The woman
Who made me drunk
Without the glass and the wine.
-2-
Your visitors became upset
When they saw me saying farewell
With my tears.
The pizza got cooler
We didn't even taste it..
The restaurant asked me
For the due money..
The love moments we had
Were attested by my foolish moments.
The best walk we had
Was on your footpath
O, friend of lovers,
You're awaking the whole world.
-3-
Inside you I'm hiding my love story
Which I'm telling with distracted mind.
I came to you from Sydney
On my way..
Her shadow was standing like a giant.
I loved her?
Don't ask my heart.
Of your nights I beg her love..
She picked me off expatriation's cold
And forced me to imprint on my lips:
O, Lygon your evening isn't cold!!
**
PORT MACQUARIE
-1-
Port Macquarie..
Port Macquarie..
I'm afraid of you spreading my secrets,
How many kisses I flew to her,
How I offered her my flowers.
The sea is girdling it all around,
My heart is drowning
And I don't know..
I feel that its sea is jealous of me
I feel that its beach had collected my stories,
Its sand is becoming a life coal..
Its wave is running off my fire.
I've fallen in with it,
And my blood is boiling
Because my flow is sweeping me away.
-2-
Port Macquarie is a city,
But I'm confused
How did I love it?
How did it love me?
How did it steel my poems?
**
BRISBANE
Daughter of unlimited sea,
Sister of sleepless sun.
Brisbane the lurked treasure
Which dreams are dreaming of.
I visited once and said:
I'll come back
And feast the days' eyes
On prairies, climbing barren mountains
Where the bird has fasted and prayed.
On the sea
Which the sand that's setting camps
Was born from,
To powder smoothest cheeks,
To guild most beautiful figures.
O, Brisbane
Your beach is very popular,
Generosity is acting
And we are one of those films.
**
DROMANA
-1-
Dromana
Abundant gardens
Arthur is sitting to observe attentively.
Its houses are candles in a big village
Which the sea scribbled, beautified
And hung a heavy relic on its chest,
Dromana couldn't carry,
It divided it,
And shared with the neighbourhood.
The waves, which left their atelier
And hid a little wave
The atelier has forgotten to complete.
-2-
Dromana,
The on going magic
Which Victoria stood to meet.
It spun a green fabric
In its spinning wheel,
To warm him.
He saw it blurred..
He tumbled by it
And it fell in him..
It became a flower
And he became a butterfly..
Their secret I'll never reveal.
**
KATOOMBA'S SPRING
-1-
It was snowing flowers
On the hills' cheeks...
Joy became the guard
And we became the songs.
Whenever a light dawn wakes the slumbers
Our sky pours out perfumes
In gatherings..
Not the ones life died in.
-2-
Your voice showed up like glory
Searching our hopes..
Sprinkling happiness as flowers
On our past paths.
.. As if his shadow is barren
You pervaded..
Warm us,
The coldness scratched our eyes,
Of coldness hide us.
-3-
Remember Katoomba and say:
How was the spring set apart
Off seasons made by season
And became the dream in our mind?
Its forests, possible!!
Spinning its echo a scarf..
Covering the fields with trees
As vast as what's been said..
As long as happiness in length
In width, as wide as mountains.
-4-
Merdad..
Like twilight are your laughter's
Beware..
Don't let the basil daughters fall in love,
In gentleness..
Spring season was stolen off burnt hearts
And Katoomba became a tunnel
Between what's stayed in memory
And what's not going to.
**
BONDI
-1-
Snuggle in me..
I'm awaiting you to snuggle in me.
My eyes whoops of your glow
And Bondi, which baptised your body
Breaks the baptismal font
And selects your name,
Offers you the most beautiful gift:
Beach,
Sun and umbrella!
-2-
Snuggle in me..
My hands missed your cheeks,
The plaits of your curly hair
Which on its beaches the water desiccated.
Mermaid..
And you're going to stay for me
The sands' effaced tale,
Soldier standing next to your castle,
Wearing an obscure hat,
Your wrist is dancing with my wrist
And Bondi is chanting a song.
-3-
Snuggle in me..
Return me to my forgotten years.
Sea birds, which flew and rose,
Lifted us as a story's straw
And people who were pointing us out
When you leaned on me,
Didn't you see them
When they showed up their breast
On a sand's mattress?!
Didn't you see them
When their lips snuggle with their lips?!
Don't be afraid of them
All of Bondi is:
Love,
Nipples and freedom..
**
MELBOURNE
-1-
Paradise..
How beautiful are its groves!
Its creator variegated with its creation.
Yarra offers it the water,
It offers us the boons.
Saint Kilda, which gild its sands,
To please Melbourne's lovers eyes,
Washed its feet with its waves
And kneeled kissing the forehead rocks.
-2-
Melbourne..
The charmed star.
I get drunk with its appearance.
My desire slays me to visit it
And smear my eyes with the green colour.
A picture..
How beautiful is that picture?!
Engraved on marble's wrists.
Mansions were planted on its streets
Increase..
Whenever the paradise enlarges.
**
FIRE 1994
Your forest turned into a dragon
Flames tongues is his tongue
And we're running scared
Of his treachery and his smoke..
Hell, we said,
But who will wipe the oppression
And its devil?!
Your men showed up
And the evergreen cypress trunks were crazy.
Their shoulders
Beside the beautiful ladies' shoulders..
They left their families
Choosing not to leave you
Or betray your land's heaven
The orchards,
The hencoop that is cuddling its chicks.
Their fire brigades are full of pride
Integrity is the symbol.
Their hose is knife like
Cutting the flame with its flood.
We thought they were saints!
Saint George on his horse!
Butting the fire out..
The second seemed years,
Protecting the house
And its residents.
Sydney..
Oh garden of jonquil
Planted in the Pacific..
Your people survived by their faith.
**
TASMANIA
-1-
Stay the rock
Which is mounted as a shrine,
The one I'm burning candles for
And hymning a verse
Written with tears on my life's page.
This world is probably overturned
Or your sea is heading up.
I arrived to you with tired paths
Hungry and disgusted of hunger.
O, Tasmania
Fill my pockets with red carob apples,
Picking it is not allowed to people like me.
-2-
Let me swim in your water
My feet drowned in the sands.
The Pacific waves opened up
Their eyes met my eyes.
O, Tasmania
The place, which was born
For summer and winter to meet.
Don't say God processed his offering
Don't say He praised..
Altar has to be in you
And I have to be the holy man.
**
ADELAIDE
-1-
Army of grapevine
Tells you about this guarded city
And the olive trees gesture you
With their leaning branches.
The oranges opposite you
Singing the wind some songs.
Cover your eyes with your kerchief
Adelaide the green heaven
Is going to offer you a gratuity.
-2-
Southerner..
Her forehead is a desert.
Her arms are boon's gardens.
Her breasts are barred mountains
Wooing a bird under the sun.
Her hair is woodlands
The dust is its tint.
And on her feet
There is heavy traffic.
Adelaide..
Its prairies are a flower,
Its streets are like a lit convent
And its lamps are the convent's candles.
**
NANA
-1-
She ran carrying her provisions
Her eyes racing her legs.
Afraid to fail her appointed dates
And be reproached by a boss.
She stopped..
Her sighing didn't stop.
She fell down..
Her arms didn't help.
She poured her wine out of her eyes
Till her eyes' urn was emptied.
-2-
New in her job
And the train doesn't await her
Whatever happens.
She arrived to a city
Its people are in their city visitors.
Sydney..
The person works hard
To collect big concerns.
She loved it,
But her belief in her alienation
Is a dust squall.
It seems like her field denied her
She grew on fire volcanoes
And the morsel on her tongue
Was the left over of young children.
This mum who they called Nana
And still didn't know her address
Her laughter willed in spring.
**
VICTORIA
-1-
Mum and dad lived in you,
Drank your water for long,
Dropped their fears on your bays
And you dusted the anger off their faces.
O, Victoria..
Which I'm talking to,
Your name is a rose on my lips,
Your glamour is the song of your valley,
Your mountains are perfume's swing.
Lend me your past's joy,
I'm sad and love to sing to you
And decorate the poetry with laughter.
-2-
You gave out happiness
On your people in shares,
You haven't forgotten one.
For them..
You emptied your pockets,
You gratified them honour and glory,
You made their hearts your heart
And raised their bodies a mountain,
You consolidated them..
They walk on your paths.
O, Victoria
The lasting glory,
There wasn't and will never be like you.
**
ORANGE
-1-
Your cherries
Are the Blue Mountains' earrings
Opposing the wind.
Embellish with them,
Strut,
Bell with a stunning look.
O, Orange
Your morning is a song in memory,
Your evening is a praise,
Spin me your prairies a scarf..
Offer me your staunch rock
To pick the kohl off the hills
And smear a line on your eyes.
-2-
Your gardens are a bunch of colours
Spreading Lebanon in front of me.
Take me back to my childhood,
To a village with coral houses
Flying birds around me
Melodies danced on its sound.
O, Orange
Your name is a great name,
Riddles in riddle,
To solve it!
I tried hard..
Only He, the Lord, can solve.
**
GOULBURN
One night of the love nights
Our station stopped in you
O, Goulburn
And the heart beats
The longer our night goes.
The ferocious cold covered the way
And pierced its horns in our room..
We couldn't leave the bed
The more the cold gets mad
The less were our sleep hours.
Abla doesn't wake up early
And my night's sleep flew away,
I woke up but Goulburn's birds didn't
Where did they pass the night?
A big ram woke with me
Its eyes are guards on the road
It kept me awake itself.
**
MY MUM
-1-
I'm yearning for your eyes
Yearning for the smile
For bliss dropping lips
Even in dormancy.
O gaze full of hope
My heart is burnt with grief
And afraid to reveal
Destiny is frib bling with my life
And your voice in my ears ringing:
"Do not wail or scream"
-2-
You said to me:
"May God be pleased with you all"
Invocation of God before the death is heard
And void's heart cleaved
As my heart did.
Doctor help my mum
Doctor remedy my mum
Doctor my mum's gone!!
O moment full of pain
Antoine kneeled on his "clot".
George froze and restrained.
Joseph yelled what's wrong with you.
Marcel on your chest nestled.
Michel on his way here,
Upset and drown with tears.
Your daughters in law grief has shone
They lost the unlimited tenderness
Lost the motherhood and the pampering.
Your families are like a kingdom
Bowed its head before you.
-3-
I cried..
By God, I cried..
By God, I cried..
Forgive me, forgive my tears
Don't think I forgot that will
Your clause is a verse engraved on my ribs
But mum, my story is:
I lost the bliss
Lost the hope
And you who were my fortune
I lost you..
I lost you..
Like live coal my agony became
Putting it down with tears
Lighting my eyes as candles on your grave
.. And Jesus cries!!
-4-
They said:
"In July the world is terminating!!"
Apparently the world will end by your death.
Motherhood death is hard
It shouldn't be happening
It quenches hearts beating by your voice.
July is gone and live coal stayed
In eyes became filled with red tears
Why do you leave us why
Into a speed we couldn't inquire!?
Obviously he called you
You missed him
And he missed you
Fine, go to him
It's time to go and meet Sarkis
Living is graceful next to him:
Angel sleeping on saint's chest.
**
NEW CASTLE
-1-
New Castle..
As old as the waves
Running on her beach
Troop is racing troop
To deluge itself in her.
-2-
Her birds are chorus of poets
Warbling for a blast of wind
Feed them,
They'll form a clique of joy
And start to sing.
-3-
Abla..
My little bird,
Surrounded by New Castle birds!!
I snatched her off them
Afraid,
She would flee
And lose her all life long.
**
AUSTRALIA
-1-
What should I tell you?
About a land remoter than imagination,
About a nation values humanity.
Expatriation is heavier than mountains
And yet I loved her,
On my affliction rocks
She planted my hopes
And passed the nights awake
To extend my education.
-2-
What should I tell you?
About her love and kind act.
In her heart, joyful people gathered.
Extract the mankind
And you'll shape her man.
Extract the faith
And you'll reap her faith.
Extract the world
To know who she is.
**
The flower of my life
Dedicated to the soul of my beloved father Sarkis Baini 1915 – 1982
-1-
O my dear father, I love so
I find it hard to say: good-bye,
To show the world my suffering,
Will certainly be the ultimate blow.
-2-
The painful sorrow of you departure,
Is flowing on our mother’s cheeks,
And also shows on our brothers’ faces.
Our uncles, aunts and all loved ones
Locked their doors and came from far
To farewell you and to say: good-bye!
O dear father, flower of my life.
-3-
Convey my love to my grandmother
And embrace my grandfather for me,
A special hello to your beloved brother,
"Bakhos" the brave, protector of our quarter,
He fed the hungry and gave the thirsty, water.
-4-
We are grateful to those who came to share,
With us, the bitterness of this imminent cup,
In the town’s church, where you once prayed
The candles are lit with abundant love,
You became the cup and the mass.
-5-
O dear father, how treacherous is the time!
It deceived me and stole you from me,
Despite your untimely departure,
I still believe in Almighty God,
I only wish, my darling father,
You stayed longer in our paradise.
-6-
O father, your departure is not fair
It seems that you’ve forgotten
That our homeland is burnt down,
And that we are here alienated
Please, don’t burn our hearts again.
Our consolation is that we know,
You are pious and you are a saint
God’s lap is your final resting place.
Translated by Elie Shaanin
**
My niece Georgette
Baptism of niece Georgette George Sarkis Baini
-1-
Georgette, my goddaughter,
The pride of my homeland,
I came today, to pour my tears,
In the holy font of your baptism
You are the light of my eyes,
I dream of your glowing face,
I dream of your lovely smile,
Sleeping has forsaken me.
I swear by Almighty God,
My heart fears no blasphemy,
You’re the daughter I never had.
-2-
This occasion is for your eyes,
You’re our faith and happiness,
Children will inherit Paradise,
Our Saviour has verily said.
In your eyes, we see paradise,
I wish I could lay at your feet,
The highest of the world’s peaks,
And decorate the green valleys,
On your wedding day,
Beg the plains, for a melody,
Which begins in Sydney Australia
And ends in Mejdlaya, Lebanon.
Translated by Elie Shaanin
**
Antoine and Therese
The day I knew of the marriage of my oldest brother Antoine Baini to our neighbour Miss Therese Anissi, year 1967, I composed this poem.
From Lebanon, I call on Melbourne,
To tell my brother Antoine,
I’ll always be grateful to him,
And cherish his memory.
Father’s son is getting married
In the darkness of expatriation,
His beacons light the way,
Antoine is our oldest brother,
At his door the sun shines,
And his Therese beside him,
Full of goodness and generosity,
Her smile quenched his thirst.
He loved her since they were kids,
And offered her all his heart,
My dear brother is getting married,
To our dearest neighbour Therese,
My poetry will always tell:
Of a lovely couple untarnished,
In their auspicious expatriation,
And ever since their departure,
Our cedars never ceased to miss them.
Translated by Elie Shaanin
**
George and Anne
I composed this poem the day I received the news of the marriage of my brother George Baini to our cousin Antoinette Bahri, year 1969.
-1-
My brother George is smitten,
Flowers of love shape
His Anne’s name
I pray to Almighty God,
To shine upon and protect them
My brother is young and handsome,
And Anne is like a fragrant rose,
Her smile made his heart palpitate,
For her, he has forsaken all.
-2-
Pour O God your abundant blessings,
Upon them and protect Sydney,
Adorn their way with silk and flowers.
Anne is a princess and George her prince,
A hero and a knight like no other,
Protect them always, O Divine Judge,
Kfirsgab joyfully danced for them,
Mejdlaya chanted jovial poetry;
And sent its heart a special gift
Translated by Elie Shaanin
**
Joseph and Veronica
I was in Sydney, when I received the news of the marriage of my brother Joseph to our cousin Veronica Bahri 3/9/1972
-1-
Joseph, my brother is getting married,
In saint Joseph’s hedged abbey,
Saint Joseph is very happy,
The wedding is held in His place.
-2-
All the people of Sydney,
Attest to Veronica Bahri,
When she stood in the Church,
God blessed her with His right.
My father Sarkis proudly asked,
My mother to release her cheers.
-3-
My brother Joe is my companion,
Ever since we were little,
With a heart full of joy,
I prayed to God and asked Him,
To complete his happiness,
We stood together in our youth,
And we will remain very close
When we get to be old.
A bridegroom brimful of love,
O Mejdlaya, beat your drums,
O Sydney, cover them with flowers.
Translated by Elie Shaanin
**
Michael and Therese
While in Sydney, I received the news of the marriage of my brother Michael to our cousin Therese Yammouni, on the island of Cyprus year 1976, I composed this poem especially for the happy occasion.
O Cyprus!
For God’s sake let me know
How my tears become so bountiful
And my heart throbbing sturdily
O Cyprus!
On my behalf,
Decorate your city squares
And embrace my brother so tenderly.
O My neighbour!
Congratulate Therese - His bride
And from your flowers
Give them a gift
And let a choir of birds
Sing in their wedding!
George, her father
And her mother Carmen
So happy for their obedient daughter!
To his daughter-in-law
My father said:
Your wishes will be granted
Your aunt Patronella will cover for me
My dearest niece from Barsa
A bride and a ray of sunshine
To you I will say it once:
You and Micho are forever in my heart
You are not only my niece
But also my only daughter
Congratulations my dearest daughter.
Translated by Elie Shaanin
**
Marcel and Laure
The day I received the news of the marriage of my youngest brother Marcel Baini to the daughter of beloved Rechdibbine, Laure Deeb year 1976, I composed this poem:
My youngest brother is in love,
With a young lass from Rechdibbine,
Laure is her beautiful name,
And she’s like a fragrant rose.
My brother adored her,
And passionately embraced her
He chose her from her father’s vineyard,
And said: Laure will always be mine.
He selected her ring so carefully,
To adorn her soft and delicate hands
He then swore by Almighty God,
To make her happy and be loyal to her
From Australia, I whisper in her ear:
With you among us dearest Laure,
Thank God, our happiness is complete.
Although we live on a remote island,
You’ll always dwell in our heart,
Our gorgeous sister-in-law
Translated by Elie Shaanin
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