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
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
- 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.Â
As explained in the introduction to 'A Foolish Man', Sweida is the southernmost of Syria’s...