The complete poetic works, Volume One - Nizar Qabbani

Is he a Syrian poet from Lebanon or a Lebanese poet from Syria? And every Arab reader may find himself in it. Nizar Qabbani's poetry goes beyond the boundaries of place to become a human language. He carried the concern of poetry even if it did not herald theories. His poem was his statement, and people's love was its highest seal. And this paste of his poetry with perfume was not swept away by industry. He remained integrated with his spontaneity. He is a goldsmith, not a maker, and a singer from the depths of the forest and from the silk of the bed, and his rhythm is like a scale of gold. Just as Nizar dipped his pen into the heart of feeling, so it is the duty that we dip our pens into Nizar's poetry. But alas! Who can match him in his spontaneous flow? The poet of burning longing and stinging anger, the poet of the fiercest moments of ember, our fire falls short of you, your glow penetrates times. In you is a fever that fills the absence with the hand that God extended in the image of Michelangelo to man. Ansi Al-Hajj, November 2013.