The Arab Orphan Celebration at the American University of Beirut

The Arab Orphan Committee at the American University of Beirut held its annual celebration, which opened with the Lebanese national anthem. Then the president of the Arab Orphan Committee, Mr. Jean Merhej, spoke (dear readers will find his address below these lines). Then Mr. Hilmi Maalouf recited a beautiful poem entitled "Resurrection," after which Miss Mamdouha al-Sayyid recited a poem whose author was not named. Then came a superb address by Dr. Jamal Karam Harfush, after which one of the students recited a poem by the Honorable Consul General of Egypt, Ahmad Bey Abdul Majid. Then the word passed to His Excellency Emile Bey Lahoud, in whose speech there appeared that sensitive poet and responsible thinker.

The celebration was interspersed with anthems by the choir of the Islamic Orphanage in Beirut, accompanied by the Lieutenants, Messrs. Fleifel Brothers.

The gifted Miss Najah Muhyi al-Din Salam also sang, accompanied on the piano by Mrs. Salma Aswad.

Below we set down the address of the committee's president, Mr. Jean Merhej:

The orphan, in the winter of life, is a violet in the expanse of fate; the clouds of gloom dampen his courage, veil the bloom of his life, and settle over his vision. If you will, you may work good for him and open the doors of hope, that he may build his being with his own hands and enter gardens steeped in safety after fear, in honor and dignity after being crushed.

The orphans of the nation are feathers in the eagle's wing, lifting the lord of the skies to the height of his glory. Who, then, is worthier than you, O nerves of the homeland and its beating heart, to be messengers to the orphans of piety and charity, of mercy and tenderness?

Whoever takes an orphan into his care shatters unjust exploitation in the harbor of triumphant independence. Your father's spring upon the earth was brief, O orphan, but the winter of your life will be shortened only by the bounties of the benefactors among the sons of your noble nation; and we, in the shadow of independence, will never consent that any nail but your own should scratch your skin.

Misery and adversity shall not seize you, for God watches over you; and for the benefactors a good deed is recorded in this world and in the next.

What, then, might the orphan become through them? A passing winter and an abiding spring; a grief at the sun's setting and a hope at its rising; a moan that fades and a charity that bears fruit; a desolation that dies by its own hand and a companionship renewed; and a spiritual joy rising like the sighs of the rose in the heart of the morning. The fire of pain lights the paths of righteousness: make love of self its fuel, and kindle breasts with patriotic zeal.

The wise man is he who comprehends spiritual values, and the thinker is he who strives toward them with effective, living forces that vindicate truth, extinguish falsehood, and spread goodness and beauty.

Among the gifts of heaven we have luminous minds, a bountiful land, a gentle breeze, and mountains whose summer is spring; but heaven has withheld the happiness that springs only from an effective vitality, one that carries spiritual values into effect and turns heaven's gifts to account to the utmost limit.

He who believes in the values of life and the vitality of the spirit keeps faith with his friend, does good to the orphan, and ransoms the homeland.

The shortest term of the immortal soul is that spent in this earthly life. Let it therefore stand firm against individual shrinking; let it set the good deed in the place of the evil one, and freedom in the place of bondage.

Is it fated for spiritual values to suffer whenever civilization advances and prosperity spreads? A people among whom spiritual values count for nothing casts off its orphans and perishes.

Smile, O Wisdom, that you may enter houses by their doors, and that man may restore you to his breast, your first birthplace.

Smile, O Mercy, that you may open the treasuries of hearts and they may pour forth, holding an effective, constructive vitality.

O Mercy! How happy is poverty in your eyes, and how burdensome is wealth.

You bestow upon the sun splendor,

and upon the heart bliss,

and upon the earth peace.