صالِح

“Spinoza was the supreme rationalist. He saw an endless stream of causality in the world. For him there is no such entity as will or will power. Nothing happens capriciously. Everything is caused by something prior, and the more we devote ourselves to the understanding of this causative network, the more free we become." ... "I'm sure he would have said that you are subject to passions that are driven by inadequate ideas rather than by the ideas that flow from a true quest for understanding the nature of reality." ... "He states explicitly that a passion ceases to be a passion as soon as we form a more clear and distinct idea of it--that is, the causative nexus underlying the passion." p.269”
― Irvin D. Yalom, The Spinoza Problem

“أعلم أن أسئلة كثيرة تدور في رأسك الآن ومنذ أن وجدت نفسك على هذا الحال .. لكن ثق في أن الحيرة هي التي تحرك العقول، بل هي الفارق الأهم بين عالم الأحياء وعالم الأموات , أن سألت نفسك في يوم إن كنت حيا أم ميتا ؟ فاعلم أنك حي لأن الموتى لا يطرحون هذا السؤال ، وكم من نفس ماتت وإن بقي جسدها ينبض بالحياة”
― منذر القباني_قطز

“أنا يا صديقة متعب بعروبتي
فهل العروبة لعنة وعقاب ؟
أمشي على ورق الخريطة خائفا
فعلى الخريطة كلنا أغراب
أتكلم الفصحى أمام عشيرتي
وأعيد ... لكن ما هناك جواب
لولا العباءات التي التفوا بها
ما كنت أحسب أنهم أعراب
يتقاتلون على بقايا تمرة
فخناجر مرفوعة وحراب

قبلاتهم عربية ... من ذا رأى
فيما رأى قبلا لها أنياب
يا تونس الخضراء كأسي علقم
أعلى الهزيمة تشرب الأنخاب ؟
وخريطة الوطن الكبير فضيحة
فحواجز ... ومخافر ... وكلاب
والعالم العربي ....إما نعجة
مذبوحة أو حاكم قصاب
والعالم العربي يرهن سيفه
فحكاية الشرف الرفيع سراب
والعالم العربي يخزن نفطه
في خصيتيه ... وربك الوهاب
والناس قبل النفط أو من بعده
مستنزفون ... فسادة ودواب
يا تونس الخضراء كيف خلاصنا ؟
لم يبق من كتب السماء كتاب
ماتت خيول بني أمية كلها
خجلا ... وظل الصرف و الإعراب
فكأنما كتب التراث خرافة
كبرى ... فلا عمر ... ولا خطاب
وبيارق ابن العاص تمسح دمعها
وعزيز مصر بالفصام مصاب
من ذا يصدق أن مصر تهودت
فمقام سيدنا الحسين يباب
ما هذه مصر ... فان صلاتها
عبرية ... و إمامها كذاب
ما هذه مصر ... فان سماءها
صغرت ... وان نساءها أسلاب
إن جاء كافور ... فكم من حاكم
قهر الشعوب ... وتاجه قبقاب
بحرية العينين ... يا قرطاجة
شاخ الزمان ... وأنت بعد شباب
هل لي بعرض البحر نصف جزيرة ؟
أم أن حبي التونسي سراب
أنا متعب ... ودفاتري تعبت معي
هل للدفاتر يا ترى أعصاب ؟
حزني بنفسجة يبللها الندى
وضفاف جرحي روضة معشاب
لا تعدليني إن كشفت مواجعي
وجه الحقيقة ما عليه نقاب
إن الجنون وراء نصف قصائدي
أوليس في بعض الجنون صواب ؟!
فتحملي غضبي الجميل فربما
ثارت على أمر السماء هضاب
فإذا صرخت بوجه من أحببتهم
فلكي يعيش الحب و الأحباب
و إذا قسوت على العروبة مرة
فلقد تضيق بكحلها الأهداب
فلربما تجد العروبة نفسها
ويضيء في قلب الظلام شهاب
ولقد تطير من العقال حمامة
ومن العباءة تطلع الأعشاب
قرطاجة ...قرطاجة ... قرطاجة
هل لي لصدرك رجعة و متاب ؟
لا تغضبي مني ... إذا غلب الهوى
إن الهوى في طبعه غلاب
فذنوب شعري كلها مغفورة
والله - جل جلاله - التواب”
― نزار قباني

“You should date a girl who reads.
Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes, who has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.

Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag. She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she has found the book she wants. You see that weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a secondhand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow and worn.

She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.

Buy her another cup of coffee.

Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.

It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas, for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry and in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.

She has to give it a shot somehow.

Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.

Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who read understand that all things must come to end, but that you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.

Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilight series.

If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.

You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.

You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.

Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.

Or better yet, date a girl who writes.”
― Rosemarie Urquico