Once Upon a Time . . . A Damascene Moon

A Damascene Moon by Nizar Qabbani
Green Tunisia, I have come to you as a lover
On my brow, a rose and a book
For I am the Damascene whose profession is passion
Whose singing turns the herbs green
A Damascene moon travels through my blood
Nightingales . . . and grain . . . and domes
From Damascus, jasmine begins its whiteness
And fragrances perfume themselves with her scent
From Damascus, water begins . . . for wherever
You lean your head, a stream flows
And poetry is a sparrow spreading its wings
Over Sham . . . and a poet is a voyager
From Damascus, love begins . . . for our ancestors
Worshiped beauty, they dissolved it, and they melted away
From Damascus, horses begin their journey
And the stirrups are tightened for the great conquest
From Damascus, eternity begins . . . and with her
Languages remain and genealogies are preserved
And Damascus gives Arabism its form
And on its land, epochs materialize 

I woke up wanting to post something about Syria today but have spent the better part of today's writing time struggling to find the right words, both my own and those of another to anchor this post.  When I finally decided upon a poem by Qabbani I had a few from which to choose.  I kept going back and forth between the poem above and A Lesson In Drawing, the latter a heartbreaking commentary on living with oppression and the reality of political violence.  

I finally decided on A Damascene Moon because I wanted to offer images of Syria in contrast to those recently seen on the news. Qabbani writes about an idealized Damascus of the past, an epicenter of life and culture, which seem far removed from the stories of death and conflict coming out of Syria's capital in recent weeks.   

In 2009 I was fortunate to visit Syria.  From the minute I stepped off the plane onto the runway and could smell the Bedouin fires I'd seen dotting the desert on our nighttime descent, I felt like I was in a fairy tale.  And as the struggle with evil in human form is so much a part of any fairy tale, I can only hope that when this chapter of Syrian history has been completed, Damascus will once again be a city where life and culture is preserved rather than destroyed.