The Most Beautiful Quotes by Lebanese Poets

Lebanese poetry has always carried the rhythm of the land. Here are some of the most beautiful quotes by Lebanese poets that you’ll fall in love with.

1. Mikhail Naimy

“Love is the law of God. You live that you may learn to love.

You love that you may learn to live. No other lesson is required of Man.”

— The Book of Mirdad, published in 1948

2. May Ziadeh

“Lebanon,

you made me. Your moody nights
put the darkness in my eyes
and laid a vein of lightning in my soul.”

— Goodbye, Lebanon, no exact date of publishing but can be placed roughly in the 1910s-1920s

3. Talal Haidar

“Alone, they remain, like the elderflower

Alone they are, collecting the leaves of time.

They lock the forest behind them,

And like the rain, they knock on my door.”

— Wahdon, published around 1966 and sung by Fairuz in 1979. Did you know this song was sampled by Drake? Click here to read more about it.

4. Khalil Hawi

“I have known how the minutes stretch their legs

How they freeze, and change into ages”

— The Cave, a poem from his poetry collection The Threshing Floors of Hunger published in 1965

He also has a beautiful poem called The Bridge, which goes as follows:

“They cross the bridge at dawn lightly
My ribs stretched for them a strong bridge
From the caves of the East, from the swamp of the East
To the new East.”

However, it doesn’t do the original Arabic version justice:

يَعبرونَ الجِسرَ في الصبحِ خفافًا”
أَضلُعي امتَدَّتْ لَهُم جِسْرًا وطيدْ
مِن كُهوفِ الشرقِ, مِن مُستنْقعِ الشَرقِ
“إِلى الشَّرقِ الجديدْ

6. Gibran Khalil Gibran

“Do not love half lovers
Do not entertain half friends
Do not indulge in works of the half talented
Do not live half a life
and do not die a half death”

Not found in his canonical works but is found as an independent poem.

7. Said Akl

“I will build for you each night
A palace luminous
With whole blocks of emerald
And diamond stones.

Shall it be skyblue as your eyes,
Or green as your wishes:
Be, and the palace too shall be.”

— The Palace of My Beloved, published in the mid-twentieth century. There’s not exact publishing date for this particular poem.

Did we miss any of your favorite Lebanese poets? Let us know!

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