Poems

BAALBECK and the RUINS

Take yourself charioted to the city
Of the gods, a temple built on the plain;
Upheld by the girders of Time to remain,
A unique structure of eternal fame.

O, well for the thoughts that tradition stay,RUINES
Centuries back still signaling we find!
This heirloom of the Roman Empire left,
But a thought of a heart dead long ago.

Man has nothing more of Magic to show,
Having the lime stones of these massive walls,
Quarried a light travel, ere the eye caught,
A wonder, of the Seven, in the world made.

Time a count of years; here we count no more,
Hundreds of generations have passed, and still,
These pillars against time a time tall,
With the fingers of the wind a harp played.

These shattered walls a relic falling down,
To stay forever lying, sand on sand,
Till time with the feet of age passes by,
Leaving the gods, turning his face away.

                                                                            Jawdat Haydar

 

LEBANON

I would that you were with me hence, sharing
This celestial view seen, unseen, before
Where Sannin eternally up staring
At the evening star glaring at the shore.

The deep is rising, the ships heading east
The green mountains capped with snow behind
Perhaps the eye of an artist possessed
May contain such a paradise in mind.

Come to me, darling, and look at the strand
The edge breaking foam lay miles apart
Amidst a galaxy topping the land
Looming a sky within heaven a heart.

Come, darling, to see what I see, and more
Stars above, stars below, moon in between
A brigade of cavalry charging the shore
Falling back on sand in glorious sheen.

O life! There's nothing more to enchant me
Than this vision of growing ecstasy
I feel dissolved and carried fancy-free
Where beauty and dreams meet in poesy.

                                                  That's the Lebanon the heart of the world
                                                  Where the cedars living for ages unknown
                                                  And the flag of liberty always unfurled
                                                  In a democracy without a throne.

                                                                                                  Jawdat Haydar

 

 

Beirut

Where's Beirut of yesterday?
The City that was keeping big with fate
The precursor of religious pride in the east,
Where the origins of thought
Opened the purdah of mind
To teach the world
The true meaning of brotherhood and love,
Where is the Beirut of yesterday?
Where's Beirut. O where are the universities
               The hospitals the skyscrapers the banks
               The churches the mosques the domes the spires
               The prosperous and busy streets?

What a painful memory is left today,
Of shadows standing walls in our grieving eyes,
Reduced to heaps of prehistoric mounds,
Inhabited by the whimpering owls at night
And far stretching skeins of eagles at sunrise,
Gyrating with hunting eyes overhead in flight.
Swooping down, enervated by the stench of the dead,
Turning tail and, up devouring our patience
And so we gaze at our calamity.
Waiting for the world to give us a hand
But the world was cock eyed, deaf and blind.

Never mind. history will record the crime
And timing time timely will avenge blood for blood,
Just to make the balance sheet right.
And I stand here on the highest mound
To spit now and every year once on the whole world,
To lubricate the tools of its mechanism;
Perhaps it will wheel right
To the palace of Justice
So that the people on earth
May enjoy their safety tomorrow.
                                                August 12, 1982
                                                 Jawdat Haydar

Wash,
            Wash,
                         Wash,

 

Wash, wash, wash,
Thy sabulous shores, O Sea!
In waves rising and ebbing to die
Like the countless hopes in me.

I have heard what I hear now, around
The shores of eternity,
The echo of a voice in the sound
Of the living age in me.

So deep that voice growing in my ears,
A song of life and regret
Of childhood, the gray hair and the years
I have forgot to forget.

I value the years, the wrinkles deep
On my brow, around my eyes
But O! for the thoughts that come and heap
On my heart, a world of sighs.

I would a day back to live again
A child with children at play
Without envy, without hate or pain
A child, full of cheer and gay.

Wash, wash, wash,
Thy old brownish shores, O Sea!
But the hopes dead and gone will never
Come again to life in me.

                              101 p77               Jawdat Haydar

جودة حيدر بلباس التخرّج

Works Cited
Abdul-Hai, Muhammad. Tradition and English and American Influence in Arabic Romantic Poetry: A Study in Comparative Literature. London: Ithaca Press, 1982.
Badawi, M.M. Modern Arabic Poetry. Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Gibran, Kahlil Gibran. The Prophet. Beirut: Dar Malaffat, 2004.
---, "Secrets of the Heart". Ed. Joseph Sheban. The Wisdom of Gibran. New York: Philosophical Library, 1966.
Haidar, Khatoun. "A 100-Year-Old Lebanese Poet Still Makes Waves with Words". The Daily Star. 28 Jan. 2005.
Haydar, Jawdat R. Echoes. Beirut: World Book Publishing, 1986.
---, Mishwār al ’Omor. 2002. Jawdat Haydar Home Page. 2 Feb. 2008 <http://www.jawdathaydar.org/biography.html&gt;
---, Shadows. Beirut: World Book Publishing, 1999.
---, Voices. New York: Vantage Press, 1980.
---, 101 Selected Poems. New York: Vantage Press, 2001.
Khairallah, Ossama. "My Poems are English Roses with Arabic Roots". Kul al-Arab. 11 January 2008.
Kozah, Mario. "The Mahjar Poets: A Postcolonial Interpretation". In Perspectives Littéraires et Développement de la Société. Université
Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, Lebanon, 2007
McDonnell, Rafael. "Life is a Gift". The North Texan. University of North Texas, 2006.
Munro, John M. Foreword. Voices. By Jawdat R. Haydar. New York: Vantage Press, 1980.
Naimy, Nadeem. The Lebanese Prophets of New York. 1st ed. American University of Beirut, 1985.
Orfalea, Gregory, and Sharif Elmusa,eds. Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American Poetry. New York: Interlink Books, 2000.
Oueijan, Naji, et al., eds. Kahlil Gibran and Ameen Rihani: Prophets of Lebanese-American Literature. Notre Dame University Press, 1999.
Rihani, A. "From Brooklyn Bridge". Trans. Nadine Khoury. Excerpts from Ar-Rihaniyat. Ed. Naji Oueijan. Lebanon: Notre Dame University Press, 1998. 9-13.
---, The Book of Khalid: The 20th Century Key to Arab-American Literature. 6th ed. Librairie du Liban Publishers, 2000.
---, A Chant of Mystics and Other Poems. Ed. S. Bushrui and J.M. Munro. Lebanon: The Rihani House, 1970.
Seidel, Michael. Exile and the Narrative Imagination. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, c1986.
Shaaban, Kassim. Foreword. Shadows. By Jawdat R. Haydar. Beirut: World  Book Publishing, 1999.
Wahbeh, Ica. "J. Haydar: Contemporary Arab Bard Seeks Eternal Truth". Jordan Times. 12 April 1992.
Waterfield, Robert. Prophet: The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Wettig, Hannah, and Adnan El-Ghoul. "Poet’s Legacy is One of Breaking Down
Barriers between East and West". The Daily Star. 28 October 2003

Poems

BAALBECK and the RUINS

Take yourself charioted to the city
Of the gods, a temple built on the plain;
Upheld by the girders of Time to remain,
A unique structure of eternal fame.

O, well for the thoughts that tradition stay,RUINES
Centuries back still signaling we find!
This heirloom of the Roman Empire left,
But a thought of a heart dead long ago.

Man has nothing more of Magic to show,
Having the lime stones of these massive walls,
Quarried a light travel, ere the eye caught,
A wonder, of the Seven, in the world made.

Time a count of years; here we count no more,
Hundreds of generations have passed, and still,
These pillars against time a time tall,
With the fingers of the wind a harp played.

These shattered walls a relic falling down,
To stay forever lying, sand on sand,
Till time with the feet of age passes by,
Leaving the gods, turning his face away.

                                                                            Jawdat Haydar

 

LEBANON

I would that you were with me hence, sharing
This celestial view seen, unseen, before
Where Sannin eternally up staring
At the evening star glaring at the shore.

The deep is rising, the ships heading east
The green mountains capped with snow behind
Perhaps the eye of an artist possessed
May contain such a paradise in mind.

Come to me, darling, and look at the strand
The edge breaking foam lay miles apart
Amidst a galaxy topping the land
Looming a sky within heaven a heart.

Come, darling, to see what I see, and more
Stars above, stars below, moon in between
A brigade of cavalry charging the shore
Falling back on sand in glorious sheen.

O life! There's nothing more to enchant me
Than this vision of growing ecstasy
I feel dissolved and carried fancy-free
Where beauty and dreams meet in poesy.

                                                  That's the Lebanon the heart of the world
                                                  Where the cedars living for ages unknown
                                                  And the flag of liberty always unfurled
                                                  In a democracy without a throne.

                                                                                                  Jawdat Haydar

 

 

Beirut

Where's Beirut of yesterday?
The City that was keeping big with fate
The precursor of religious pride in the east,
Where the origins of thought
Opened the purdah of mind
To teach the world
The true meaning of brotherhood and love,
Where is the Beirut of yesterday?
Where's Beirut. O where are the universities
               The hospitals the skyscrapers the banks
               The churches the mosques the domes the spires
               The prosperous and busy streets?

What a painful memory is left today,
Of shadows standing walls in our grieving eyes,
Reduced to heaps of prehistoric mounds,
Inhabited by the whimpering owls at night
And far stretching skeins of eagles at sunrise,
Gyrating with hunting eyes overhead in flight.
Swooping down, enervated by the stench of the dead,
Turning tail and, up devouring our patience
And so we gaze at our calamity.
Waiting for the world to give us a hand
But the world was cock eyed, deaf and blind.

Never mind. history will record the crime
And timing time timely will avenge blood for blood,
Just to make the balance sheet right.
And I stand here on the highest mound
To spit now and every year once on the whole world,
To lubricate the tools of its mechanism;
Perhaps it will wheel right
To the palace of Justice
So that the people on earth
May enjoy their safety tomorrow.
                                                August 12, 1982
                                                 Jawdat Haydar

Wash,
            Wash,
                         Wash,

 

Wash, wash, wash,
Thy sabulous shores, O Sea!
In waves rising and ebbing to die
Like the countless hopes in me.

I have heard what I hear now, around
The shores of eternity,
The echo of a voice in the sound
Of the living age in me.

So deep that voice growing in my ears,
A song of life and regret
Of childhood, the gray hair and the years
I have forgot to forget.

I value the years, the wrinkles deep
On my brow, around my eyes
But O! for the thoughts that come and heap
On my heart, a world of sighs.

I would a day back to live again
A child with children at play
Without envy, without hate or pain
A child, full of cheer and gay.

Wash, wash, wash,
Thy old brownish shores, O Sea!
But the hopes dead and gone will never
Come again to life in me.

                              101 p77               Jawdat Haydar

جودة حيدر بلباس التخرّج

Works Cited
Abdul-Hai, Muhammad. Tradition and English and American Influence in Arabic Romantic Poetry: A Study in Comparative Literature. London: Ithaca Press, 1982.
Badawi, M.M. Modern Arabic Poetry. Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Gibran, Kahlil Gibran. The Prophet. Beirut: Dar Malaffat, 2004.
---, "Secrets of the Heart". Ed. Joseph Sheban. The Wisdom of Gibran. New York: Philosophical Library, 1966.
Haidar, Khatoun. "A 100-Year-Old Lebanese Poet Still Makes Waves with Words". The Daily Star. 28 Jan. 2005.
Haydar, Jawdat R. Echoes. Beirut: World Book Publishing, 1986.
---, Mishwār al ’Omor. 2002. Jawdat Haydar Home Page. 2 Feb. 2008 <http://www.jawdathaydar.org/biography.html&gt;
---, Shadows. Beirut: World Book Publishing, 1999.
---, Voices. New York: Vantage Press, 1980.
---, 101 Selected Poems. New York: Vantage Press, 2001.
Khairallah, Ossama. "My Poems are English Roses with Arabic Roots". Kul al-Arab. 11 January 2008.
Kozah, Mario. "The Mahjar Poets: A Postcolonial Interpretation". In Perspectives Littéraires et Développement de la Société. Université
Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, Lebanon, 2007
McDonnell, Rafael. "Life is a Gift". The North Texan. University of North Texas, 2006.
Munro, John M. Foreword. Voices. By Jawdat R. Haydar. New York: Vantage Press, 1980.
Naimy, Nadeem. The Lebanese Prophets of New York. 1st ed. American University of Beirut, 1985.
Orfalea, Gregory, and Sharif Elmusa,eds. Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American Poetry. New York: Interlink Books, 2000.
Oueijan, Naji, et al., eds. Kahlil Gibran and Ameen Rihani: Prophets of Lebanese-American Literature. Notre Dame University Press, 1999.
Rihani, A. "From Brooklyn Bridge". Trans. Nadine Khoury. Excerpts from Ar-Rihaniyat. Ed. Naji Oueijan. Lebanon: Notre Dame University Press, 1998. 9-13.
---, The Book of Khalid: The 20th Century Key to Arab-American Literature. 6th ed. Librairie du Liban Publishers, 2000.
---, A Chant of Mystics and Other Poems. Ed. S. Bushrui and J.M. Munro. Lebanon: The Rihani House, 1970.
Seidel, Michael. Exile and the Narrative Imagination. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, c1986.
Shaaban, Kassim. Foreword. Shadows. By Jawdat R. Haydar. Beirut: World  Book Publishing, 1999.
Wahbeh, Ica. "J. Haydar: Contemporary Arab Bard Seeks Eternal Truth". Jordan Times. 12 April 1992.
Waterfield, Robert. Prophet: The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Wettig, Hannah, and Adnan El-Ghoul. "Poet’s Legacy is One of Breaking Down
Barriers between East and West". The Daily Star. 28 October 2003

Poems

BAALBECK and the RUINS

Take yourself charioted to the city
Of the gods, a temple built on the plain;
Upheld by the girders of Time to remain,
A unique structure of eternal fame.

O, well for the thoughts that tradition stay,RUINES
Centuries back still signaling we find!
This heirloom of the Roman Empire left,
But a thought of a heart dead long ago.

Man has nothing more of Magic to show,
Having the lime stones of these massive walls,
Quarried a light travel, ere the eye caught,
A wonder, of the Seven, in the world made.

Time a count of years; here we count no more,
Hundreds of generations have passed, and still,
These pillars against time a time tall,
With the fingers of the wind a harp played.

These shattered walls a relic falling down,
To stay forever lying, sand on sand,
Till time with the feet of age passes by,
Leaving the gods, turning his face away.

                                                                            Jawdat Haydar

 

LEBANON

I would that you were with me hence, sharing
This celestial view seen, unseen, before
Where Sannin eternally up staring
At the evening star glaring at the shore.

The deep is rising, the ships heading east
The green mountains capped with snow behind
Perhaps the eye of an artist possessed
May contain such a paradise in mind.

Come to me, darling, and look at the strand
The edge breaking foam lay miles apart
Amidst a galaxy topping the land
Looming a sky within heaven a heart.

Come, darling, to see what I see, and more
Stars above, stars below, moon in between
A brigade of cavalry charging the shore
Falling back on sand in glorious sheen.

O life! There's nothing more to enchant me
Than this vision of growing ecstasy
I feel dissolved and carried fancy-free
Where beauty and dreams meet in poesy.

                                                  That's the Lebanon the heart of the world
                                                  Where the cedars living for ages unknown
                                                  And the flag of liberty always unfurled
                                                  In a democracy without a throne.

                                                                                                  Jawdat Haydar

 

 

Beirut

Where's Beirut of yesterday?
The City that was keeping big with fate
The precursor of religious pride in the east,
Where the origins of thought
Opened the purdah of mind
To teach the world
The true meaning of brotherhood and love,
Where is the Beirut of yesterday?
Where's Beirut. O where are the universities
               The hospitals the skyscrapers the banks
               The churches the mosques the domes the spires
               The prosperous and busy streets?

What a painful memory is left today,
Of shadows standing walls in our grieving eyes,
Reduced to heaps of prehistoric mounds,
Inhabited by the whimpering owls at night
And far stretching skeins of eagles at sunrise,
Gyrating with hunting eyes overhead in flight.
Swooping down, enervated by the stench of the dead,
Turning tail and, up devouring our patience
And so we gaze at our calamity.
Waiting for the world to give us a hand
But the world was cock eyed, deaf and blind.

Never mind. history will record the crime
And timing time timely will avenge blood for blood,
Just to make the balance sheet right.
And I stand here on the highest mound
To spit now and every year once on the whole world,
To lubricate the tools of its mechanism;
Perhaps it will wheel right
To the palace of Justice
So that the people on earth
May enjoy their safety tomorrow.
                                                August 12, 1982
                                                 Jawdat Haydar

Wash,
            Wash,
                         Wash,

 

Wash, wash, wash,
Thy sabulous shores, O Sea!
In waves rising and ebbing to die
Like the countless hopes in me.

I have heard what I hear now, around
The shores of eternity,
The echo of a voice in the sound
Of the living age in me.

So deep that voice growing in my ears,
A song of life and regret
Of childhood, the gray hair and the years
I have forgot to forget.

I value the years, the wrinkles deep
On my brow, around my eyes
But O! for the thoughts that come and heap
On my heart, a world of sighs.

I would a day back to live again
A child with children at play
Without envy, without hate or pain
A child, full of cheer and gay.

Wash, wash, wash,
Thy old brownish shores, O Sea!
But the hopes dead and gone will never
Come again to life in me.

                              101 p77               Jawdat Haydar

جودة حيدر بلباس التخرّج

Works Cited
Abdul-Hai, Muhammad. Tradition and English and American Influence in Arabic Romantic Poetry: A Study in Comparative Literature. London: Ithaca Press, 1982.
Badawi, M.M. Modern Arabic Poetry. Cambridge University Press, 1975.
Gibran, Kahlil Gibran. The Prophet. Beirut: Dar Malaffat, 2004.
---, "Secrets of the Heart". Ed. Joseph Sheban. The Wisdom of Gibran. New York: Philosophical Library, 1966.
Haidar, Khatoun. "A 100-Year-Old Lebanese Poet Still Makes Waves with Words". The Daily Star. 28 Jan. 2005.
Haydar, Jawdat R. Echoes. Beirut: World Book Publishing, 1986.
---, Mishwār al ’Omor. 2002. Jawdat Haydar Home Page. 2 Feb. 2008 <http://www.jawdathaydar.org/biography.html&gt;
---, Shadows. Beirut: World Book Publishing, 1999.
---, Voices. New York: Vantage Press, 1980.
---, 101 Selected Poems. New York: Vantage Press, 2001.
Khairallah, Ossama. "My Poems are English Roses with Arabic Roots". Kul al-Arab. 11 January 2008.
Kozah, Mario. "The Mahjar Poets: A Postcolonial Interpretation". In Perspectives Littéraires et Développement de la Société. Université
Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, Lebanon, 2007
McDonnell, Rafael. "Life is a Gift". The North Texan. University of North Texas, 2006.
Munro, John M. Foreword. Voices. By Jawdat R. Haydar. New York: Vantage Press, 1980.
Naimy, Nadeem. The Lebanese Prophets of New York. 1st ed. American University of Beirut, 1985.
Orfalea, Gregory, and Sharif Elmusa,eds. Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab-American Poetry. New York: Interlink Books, 2000.
Oueijan, Naji, et al., eds. Kahlil Gibran and Ameen Rihani: Prophets of Lebanese-American Literature. Notre Dame University Press, 1999.
Rihani, A. "From Brooklyn Bridge". Trans. Nadine Khoury. Excerpts from Ar-Rihaniyat. Ed. Naji Oueijan. Lebanon: Notre Dame University Press, 1998. 9-13.
---, The Book of Khalid: The 20th Century Key to Arab-American Literature. 6th ed. Librairie du Liban Publishers, 2000.
---, A Chant of Mystics and Other Poems. Ed. S. Bushrui and J.M. Munro. Lebanon: The Rihani House, 1970.
Seidel, Michael. Exile and the Narrative Imagination. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, c1986.
Shaaban, Kassim. Foreword. Shadows. By Jawdat R. Haydar. Beirut: World  Book Publishing, 1999.
Wahbeh, Ica. "J. Haydar: Contemporary Arab Bard Seeks Eternal Truth". Jordan Times. 12 April 1992.
Waterfield, Robert. Prophet: The Life and Times of Kahlil Gibran. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Wettig, Hannah, and Adnan El-Ghoul. "Poet’s Legacy is One of Breaking Down
Barriers between East and West". The Daily Star. 28 October 2003