Stop! draw near! here indeed is the place where man is driven
from his senses.
...
O beautiful one! behold this statue carved of marble,
Looking down on the world with cynical disdain
...
Omar Abu-Riche (Arabic: عمر أبو ريشة) (10 April 1910 – 15 July 1990) was an influential Syrian poet known for his pioneering works. Abu-Riche was born in Manbij, near Aleppo. He received his educational upbringing in Syria and continued his tertiary studies at the University of Damascus. He also studied at the American University in Beirut in 1931, and later read chemistry at the University of Manchester, UK.Then he fall in love with syrian lady,but during his stay in UK,he received news of her death.He become very disappointed and write MARSIA "Khatam-ul-Hub"(The end of Love).Then he start Islamic teachings. Returning to Syria, he produced literary works and attended to his duties as Librarian of Aleppo, Syria. In 1949, the Syrian government appointed him ambassador to Brazil. As a diplomat until 1964, he was ambassador to Argentina, Chile, India, Austria and finally the United States. His works included several volumes of poetry and poetic dramas.)
Ruins
Stop! draw near! here indeed is the place where man is driven
from his senses.
Sands, rubble, a castle whose summits have toppled seeking its
foundation.
Dazed, I survey it, inquiring of my today concerning its yesterday:
Did life truly flow over it?
Did eyelids close over its intimacy?
The nightingales chanted its good fortune-while the fates hastened
its disaster.
Can I mak the stones speak of their sculptors, or raise the dead
from the tomb?
Thorns are not nourished at its breast, nor does the owl croak over it.
Even the spiders, terrified, seek to escape its prison.
The hand of destruction has tires over it, fearing harm from
its touch.
Here illusion shakes its phantoms, and death kills itself in its despair.
I am looking Abu risha's poem on a Palestine girl whom he met during an air travel