Naji Naaman [Lebanon]

 

   

      An-Najiyyat
 
           9
 
I am the newborn, the teenager,
The old man, the everlastingness,
I am the father, the fatigue,
The mother, the harvest
 
I am the inanimate, the eventful,
The cultivations, the crop,
I am the good, the gift,
The evil, the misery
 
I am love, compassion,
Hatred, unhappiness,
I am hope, expectations,
Fortune, destiny
 
I am thought, truth,
Faith, the covet,
I am the seeing, the seeable,
And any star that shoots
 
I am life, death,
The being, the non-being,
I am God, immortality,
The all, the nothing
 
I am Man
                               2000
 
(Translated from Arabic by Celia Din)
 
(from “The Hymns”)
(from “The Dreamer”)  
 
 
What a waste of time
 
Letting ourselves be deluded with illusions
Hoping for an encounter or a kiss;
What a waste of time
Picturing the impossible and day-dreaming;
What a waste of time
On earth, at sea and in the air,
Wanting to travel;
 
God! How nostalgic, though
For that unnecessarily wasted time!
                                              2002
 
(Translated from Arabic by Celia Din)
 
(from “The Departing”)
(from “The Alpha-Omega”) 
 
 
The last tears
 
Just dropped:
They are departing tears;
Will they be sad and warm,
Like for some parting?
Or happy and melodious,
Like for emancipation?
 
The last tears just dropped, like a storm,
Here they come inciting me to embark,
And here I am, embarking
With such a non-describable joy!
 
I am humming a hymn,
A hymn to departure which I have never written;
I am humming it for the first time,
While agonizing for the first time;
I am still humming it;
 
Hoping, when it is over, to depart;
I am still humming it,
And here I am departing,
Here I am, joyfully, crossing!
                                      2002
 
(Translated from Arabic by Celia Din)
 
(from “The Departing”)
(from “The Alpha-Omega”)
 

 
Author’s Bionote:
 
*Naji Naaman: Writer, poet, humanist and culture promoter. Born at Harissa (Lebanon) in May 19, 1954. Nicknamed “the mad about gratis culture”, he is trying to globalize such culture. Owner of Maison Naaman pour la Culture (1979), he established the Free Book Series in 1991, a series of annual literary prizes in 2002 (Naji Naaman literary prizes), another series of annual targeted literary prizes in 2007, as well as a literary and cultural salon (Wednesday Gathering) and a writing workshop. He created in 2011 the Naji Naaman Foundation for Gratis Culture (FGC), a non-governmental and non-profit organization. He inaugurated in 2012 “Mitri and Angélique Naaman Commemorative Room”, and launched “The International Day for Gratis Culture” as well as a “Cultural Tourism” program. In 2013, he faced new challenges: “The Writers Museum – Fingerprints”, the “Suites of Books presented to National and Public Libraries” and the “Monday Literary and Cultural Circle”. With more than ninety titles including several literary works, he is translated into more than fifty languages and dialects. Member of the Arab Cultural Academy, 2015; winner of the International Grand Prize of Poetry, Romania, 2002; he is nominated to several prizes, including the Premi Internacional Catalunya (since 2004). Recipient of a Ph. D. in Law and decorated by the IOISCW, 2014; a tribute was paid to him at the Avetik Isahakyan Central Library (Yerevan - Armenia), and Hranush Hakobyan, Minister of Diaspora, awarded him the decoration of the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, 2015. In 2017, he is President of the first Festival of Aphorists held in Tecuci (Romania), and is granted the title of Honorary Ambassador for Culture. He received the Aurora (Arshaluys) Mardiganian gold medal at the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (Yerevan) on June 8, 2019, and a new tribute was paid to him at the Avetik Isahakyan Central Library on June 14 after the inauguration of the suite of books he granted to the said library.