Sarah Chaoui

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ”
― George Orwell

“Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.
Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave
and eats a bread it does not harvest.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero,
and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity a nation that despises a passion in its dream,
yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice
save when it walks in a funeral,
boasts not except among its ruins,
and will rebel not save when its neck is laid
between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox,
whose philosopher is a juggler,
and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting,
and farewells him with hooting,
only to welcome another with trumpeting again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years
and whose strongmen are yet in the cradle.

Pity the nation divided into fragments,
each fragment deeming itself a nation.”
― Kahlil Gibran, The Garden of The Prophet

“ليلى : ما فؤادي حديد ولا حجر

لك قلب فسله يا قيس ينبئك بالخبر

قد تحملت في الهوى فوق ما يحمل البشر

قيس :

لست ليلاي داريا كيف أشكو وأنفجر

أشرح الشوق كله أم من الشوق أختصر؟

ليلى :

نبني قيس ما الذي لك في البيد من وطر؟

لك فيها قصائد جاوزتها إلى الحضر

أترى قد سلوتنا وعشقت المها الأخر؟

قيس :

غرت ليلى من المها والمها منك لم تغر

لست كالغيد لا ولا قمر البيد كالقمر”
― أحمد شوقي, مجنون ليلى