Friday, March 29, 2024
  Tears for the Souq of Damascus On the road to Damascus I dreamed of the Souk The delicious biscuit, barazeh The over powering smell of maazoot   Souk El Hamadeyeh’s narrow lanes Shoulder rubbing lanes of fabric Copperware, clothing, underwear The silversmiths, surely do reign   Traditional foods and modern cuisine Great fashion and jewellery Syria, home of pure cotton High-rise buildings add to the scene   Mar Yohanna’s historical church Now a mausoleum The ancient...

I have no power

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I have no power By Nizar Qabbani translated by Norma Medawar I have no power to change you Or explain your ways… Don’t believe a man can change a woman and the claims of men fancying that woman comes from one of their ribs are false… Woman never emerges from a man’s rib…. It’s he who emerges from her pelvis like a fish rising from a basin of water he...

My Country

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My Country - by Nizar Qabbani, - translated by Norma Medawar From the lisp of the blackbird… From the saddening huskiness of the flute… From the flickering sounds of the folk songs From the sighs of the minaret… From a cloud at sunset woven by a chimney and by the wound of the bricks of the decorated and widespread villages… From the whispers of a star settled in our east From a story between a rose and a...
'A Foolish Man', the story below, is from Kan Ya Ma Kan: Folktales and Recipes of Syria and its Ethnic Groups by the late Muna Imady. It is published here by 'Beloved Syria' with the permission of the author's mother, Elaine Imady. This story comes from Sweida.  As explained in the introduction to 'A Foolish Man', Sweida is the southernmost of Syria’s...