As a part of its continuing effort to share a portion of the literary wealth of Arabic poetry with the English reader, The Arab American News translates a poem by the legendary Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani.

If winter came,

and its wind moved my curtains,

I feel, my friend,

a need for crying…

On your arms…

On my notebook.

If winter came

And the singing of the Nightingales ceased…

And I became 

Homeless like all the birds…

The bleeding starts in my hear… and in my fingers.

As if the rain of the sky, my friend,

is falling in my heart.

Then… a childish longing for crying

on the silk of your long hair embraces me,

Like a boat tired of sickness…

Like an migrating bird,

searching for a roof for itself…

In the darkness of the braids. 

If winter came…

And assassinated what’s in the fields of fruits…

And hid the stars in its depressed robe..

Sadness comes from the cave of the sky…

It comes like a pale estranged child,

with wet cheeks and clothes,

and I open the door

to this beloved visitor…

I offer him a bed… And a blanket.

I offer him all he wants.

Where did the sorrow come from, my friend?

And how did it come?

Carrying to me in its hand

amazing lilies of paleness 

Carrying to me

Bags of tears and crying.

— Translated from Arabic by Ali Harb