When I love you

؛                                                When I love you

A new language springs up,

New cities, new countries discovered.

The hours breathe like puppies,

Wheat grows between the pages of books,

Birds fly from your eyes with tiding of honey,

Caravans ride from your breasts carrying Indian herbs,

The mangoes fall all around, the forests catch fire

And Nubian drums beat.

***

When I love you your breasts shake off their shame,

Turn into lightning and thunder, a sword, a sandy storm.

When I love you the Arab cities leap up and demonstrate

Against the ages of repression

And the ages

Of revenge against the laws of the tribe.

And I, when I love you,

March against ugliness,

Against the kings of salt,

Against the institutionalization of the desert.

And I shall continue to love you until the world flood arrives;I shall continue to love you untill the world flood arrives.

؛ Copyright:  Nizar Qabbani

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