1/08/2005

Those Alleyways


In those alleyways... How many treasures did I hide?
And how many childhood memories did I leave?


On their walls... How many pictures did I draw?
And on their stair-steps... How many toys did I break?


Oh Damascus, my wounds have no banks,
So wipe my sorrow off my brow.


-- Nizar Qabbani 1923-1998
("unofficial" translation)

8 comments:

Martin said...

You always find such amazing images. I like very much the text also.

Best Wishes
La Luna.

t'su said...

A lovely pairing of words and image. Well done.

Rafeed said...

Man you are great ....
but why did not you translate that part which speaks about Damascene cats it is not from the same Poem by the way ... why you did not translate the first part of the poem ... I know it is not easy to translate it but it is worthy to try ...
and the first part of the Poem says :
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and since I am homesick nowadays let me share you these great piece from the same poem :
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"copy - paste" from www.damascus-online.com

Rafeed said...

I am sorry for the question marks ... they were arabic characters ...

Rafeed said...

By the way Ayman ...
someone had comment on your article "The pencils "
follow the link :
http://omaralarabi.blogspot.com/

دلع said...

????? ?? ????. ????? ????? ???? ?????? ? ????? ???.
???? ?? ????? ???????? ??? ? ?? ??? ?????? ???? ???? ???????.

دلع said...

hi ayman. how come your blog doesnt accept arabic text??

Ayman Haykal said...

The font I am using cannot display Arabic text. I will fix that soon. Anyway, I got your comment by email. Thanks :)