On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani (Poetry Series)

I had thought your love would end my estrangementbut you passed like water between my fingers~Nizar QabbaniIn my eternal search for poetry infused with images of water and passion, "On Entering the Sea" appeared on the Amazon horizon. How I love this site and the ability to locate life-enhancing selections of great beauty.The poetry of Nizar Qabbani requires atmosphere and an imagination willing to travel beyond the daily drudgery of existence into longings for home, passionate encounters and the mysteries of sensation. At times his poems have echoes of ancient works that intertwine themselves with modern complexity. His work celebrates the love of country, women and sensuous images of coffeehouses and Andalusian experiences.I writeto save the woman I lovefrom the cities of no poetry, of no lovethe cities of frustration and gloomI write to make her a misty cloudOnly woman and writingSave us from death.As an introduction to Nizar Qabbani, On Entering the Sea presents his work in a pleasing arrangement by translator. While the introduction by Salma Khadra Jayyusi presents an overview of the book, how I wished for a section at the end to explain the details behind many of the poems. Would this enhance my enjoyment or do the poems speak of moments so profound, no other explanation is needed? It could be said that many of his poems have a universal appeal and need no further explanation.While his words glow with a love for the female essence in life and in women, he also explores thoughts of protecting his home, lands he loves and a different perspective on war and loss. "Posters" may be shocking to some and yet it is a representation of how Nizar Qabbani sees the world and wishes for peace all while declaring war on pride. It is highly political and yet he delves into the heart of freedom for all people. Although, I think there are poems I have yet to read which apparently display a more revolutionary approach, although this is not foreign to poets the world over. I enjoyed reading Jerusalem:Jerusalem, beloved city of mine,tomorrow your lemon trees will bloom,your green stalks and branches rise up joyful,and your eyes will laugh...He experienced so much pain and loss and was very controversial, especially in his hometown in Damascus where he challenged cultural taboos. Too often I think we as a society have condemned the erotic, all while longing for erotic pleasures of our own. Nizar Qabbani not only sets desire free in poems, he sets women free from oppression. In "Diary of an Indifferent Woman," he writes as a woman:I want to escape from my own skinfrom my own voice, from my own languageand stray like the fragrance of gardensI want to flee from my own shadowand from all addressesBy the end of the poem he talks about crystal bottles with dead butterflies and the images become revelations of eternal struggles for independence and for the freedom to love. During his teenage years, his sister committed suicide, because she could not marry the man she loved.Time after time Nizar Qabbani displays an exceptional understanding of what it means to be female all while revealing what it means to be a man. Insatiable physical love and ecstasy from the sheer vision of a woman become spiritual expressions of love for God himself. "The Book of Love" is worshipful and timeless.The name of my love.I wrote it on the water.I did not knowThat the wind rushes by without listening,That names dissolve in the water.He also asks: "What is Love?" Then he humorously explains how he cannot change the woman he loves for she is "a storm trapped in a bottle."Most of the poems are pleasing and passionate, but there are poems displaying private pain and horror as love is ripped from his hands by the ravages of terror. He perfectly describes his grief in an unusual moment where he is standing in the rubble of an attack and remembers his wife and the cadence of her name.As he finds her handbag in the rubble, we are convinced no man has ever loved his wife this deeply, and yet the universal message makes us realize how many have loved and lost and longed for a woman like Balquis Al-Rawi. The vision he paints of honey, jasmine moons, rubies and roses will remain in my memory for as long as I love poetry. As in many passionate poems, the feelings of the poet flowed through me and appeared in tears. His poem about his mother's death is equally poignant and we are left with the scent of coffee, cardamom seeds and orange blossom water.If you are a lover of world poetry, the poems of Nizar Qabbani are essential reading. Through his poems you feel the ancient longings of all people in all lands and in his uncensored thoughts, we can truly experience life through his eyes. I can only hope more of his work is translated in the near future. The exciting element of his poetry is often how he absorbs experience and then defeats his own inner tyranny by writing exactly what he thinks to display the beauty of truth. You will hear echoes in his writing and realize how many contemporary spiritual teachers and poets have been students of his poetry.To peace...~The Rebecca Review

Some of Qabbani’s works, in particular the poem this book takes its name from make my heart skip a beat or two.This volume also includes a few of Qabbani’s protest/political poems, which often have beautiful nostalgic imagery that heightens the emotions of loss and grief that permeate them.

These poems; many of them love poems, are exquisite. fresh, intimate and often they speak of the Beloved , the Source,. If you like Rumi and Hafzi and the love poems of Pablo Neruda, these will, most likely ,speak to you and touch your heart. Qabbani's images are new and often breathtaking. They are often evocative, taking us deeper than the mind. And is that not why those of us who love poetry, gravitate to it?Here is one:CUP AND ROSEI went to the coffeehouseintending to forgetour love and burymy sorrows, butyou emergedfrom the bottom of mycoffee cup,a white rose.and another:EQUATIONI love youtherefore I amin the present.I write, beloved,and retrieve the past.Those who write will certainly connect with that poem. I love it,not only because it opens the heart with those few words,but also because , I believe, we live in a culture that demands that we release lovers of the past .Qabbani's poems remind us that some loves enrich our souls forever and call us to write of the longing, the love, and the ways that,that love has made us more than what we thought we were. Think of Dante and Beatrice, Rumi and Shams. Had Rumi or Dante thought it unwise to dwell on those who pierced their souls, they would not have discovered the story beyond the story; the mortal love that brought them to deep places within themselves, and beyond themselves, where they experienced direct connection with the Source, the Presence, the Divine, God; whatever name you have for the Mystery. Do all loves take us to the place? Of course not. The poet, with his/her deep intuition, and "hearing" that "voice" within ,that continues to nag them, with images, insights, emotions, who pays heed to the call will enrich, deepen and expand not only their souls, but ours, and people like myself bow in gratitude.

Good.

A joy to read, nothing else and everything more.

This poetry is heart-wrenching, if you have a heart. How this man creates such beautiful images and feelings using mere shapes on paper is beyond me. What a genius.