WHERE IS REDEMPTION?
O God, do not deprive our Lebanon
Of decorations, of feasts everywhere;
You sent Your Son to save us, where is that
Redemption? Yet our people now despair.
**
A PERFECT PAST
We had a homeland in a perfect past
That there was nothing like it but in dreams,
It has become a ruin, much loved ones
Now scattered by ordeals and children’s screams.
**
FIVE
Had only God Created five like me
And put one in each five great continents,
All paper would become the people’s bread,
Their cups filled by the sun’s rays so immense.
**
LONGING
Do not say you are far away from me
The distance is too short. Now realise,
Close as the bird’s own eagerness you are,
Close as the stars above now in my eyes.
**
HOPE
I send a letter but get no reply.
I stand and wait. The postman passes by,
The letterbox left empty, and a cloud
Wraps up my heart on fresh dreams to rely.
**
FLOATING
So many years have passed, O dearest land
Of glory, you’re ill-treated and I say,
I wish that I could use great Moses’ staff
To drown them all, and let you float away.
**
MADMAN
..And anyone who writes two little words
Becomes a writer in this exile, but
The writer whose words cause mighty fire
Is seen as mad and small, from senses shut.
**
MY MOTHER
Your eyes are shedding tears, mother, thus
About a country you were forced to leave;
God, with his gift of Christmas, will yet lift
Your country’s poverty, bright lights retrieve.
**
O God, do not deprive our Lebanon
Of decorations, of feasts everywhere;
You sent Your Son to save us, where is that
Redemption? Yet our people now despair.
**
A PERFECT PAST
We had a homeland in a perfect past
That there was nothing like it but in dreams,
It has become a ruin, much loved ones
Now scattered by ordeals and children’s screams.
**
FIVE
Had only God Created five like me
And put one in each five great continents,
All paper would become the people’s bread,
Their cups filled by the sun’s rays so immense.
**
LONGING
Do not say you are far away from me
The distance is too short. Now realise,
Close as the bird’s own eagerness you are,
Close as the stars above now in my eyes.
**
HOPE
I send a letter but get no reply.
I stand and wait. The postman passes by,
The letterbox left empty, and a cloud
Wraps up my heart on fresh dreams to rely.
**
FLOATING
So many years have passed, O dearest land
Of glory, you’re ill-treated and I say,
I wish that I could use great Moses’ staff
To drown them all, and let you float away.
**
MADMAN
..And anyone who writes two little words
Becomes a writer in this exile, but
The writer whose words cause mighty fire
Is seen as mad and small, from senses shut.
**
MY MOTHER
Your eyes are shedding tears, mother, thus
About a country you were forced to leave;
God, with his gift of Christmas, will yet lift
Your country’s poverty, bright lights retrieve.
**
