out the story of the Nativity, and delighted in playing the parts of the shepherds, the Magi, and the angels, the slaughter of the children, and the portrayal of

the animals of the manger — as we still see to this day in artless church and school plays. And if the Nativity influenced English drama for centuries before Shakespeare, its influence did not end with the rise of the modern drama; rather it increased. One glance at the various lists of literary books that appear from time to time needs only a pencil to count how many Nativity plays of value have appeared in English literature from the Victorian age up to before this war — and you will find the number leaping above the hundred.

As for the novel and the short story, literature has not fallen short there either: look at any Christmas number of the maga-zines of Europe and America, and sometimes of some of our own magazines, and you will find a story devoted to Christmas. Or return to the books of literature, and read several tales by Dickens, one of the masters of the story in English literature, among them his gem "A Christmas Carol"; or read Thackeray's Christmas tales, or the tales of Max Beerbohm, or of other English writers — to say nothing of the storytellers of other literatures. You will find in them, alongside amusement and pleasure, spiritual dimensions; for the storytellers grasped the meaning of Christmas, and in what they wrote they struck the chord of pity, mercy, tenderness, simplicity, and the glorification of poverty.

So too in poetry: return again to the lists, and you will find in English poetry alone — and English literature is more deeply influenced by things spiritual and religious than any other — Nativity poems that are hard to count. If you select from them those of literary value, you will find that down to the beginning of this century they number no fewer than four hundred, and you will find their subjects manifold, treat-ing of the Nativity, of Bethlehem, the angels, the carols, the star, the children, the bells, the candles, the children's games, the holiday cakes, the drums, the season's greetings, the hearths, the special holiday meal, the guests, the par-ties, the sermons, the Christmas

tree, its memories, and the dreams that fill our hearts when the day arrives. You would find, too, that these subjects, on which so much poetry has been said, generally retain a stamp of freshness, especially when sung by the great poets — such as Milton (and is there anything that reaches the poetic summit if his poem "Hymn on the Birth of Christ" is not among it?), Wordsworth, Tennyson, Rossetti, Swinburne, Coleridge, Kipling, Browning, Scott, Stevenson, Morris, Herrick, and many others.

Modern and contemporary English poetry has shown an admirable inventiveness in pre-senting the Nativity and all that pertains to it; and it is noteworthy that the modern poets who have treated it most are women, despite woman's falling short in the arena of poetry. In this poetry of theirs there is smoothness of expression and simplicity of meaning, a con-cern with tenderness and mercy, a showing forth of the true spirit of motherhood and of children's obedience to their mothers, after the manner of Jesus and Mary; and there are also spiritual and intellectual meanings which it draws out of the event, giving each poem an independent and singular being of its own.

As for our Arabic literature — and alas for our Arabic literature! — no bond of love or friendship has yet arisen between it and the Nativity, though it has made its acquaintance. Palestine — where the Nativity took place, and all

that followed the Nativity, events which are the greatest events of the entire universe — could have profited from them in her literature as nations profit from their events; but for certain causes she fell short of that, and has remained wanting in the world of culture and art. Still, we do not lack some Nativity pieces in our literature: besides the sermons and spiritual hymns, some of them translated, we find translations of many stories, especially religious ones; we find poems by some men of religion; we find sweet passages by Gibran; we find Shawqi's poem on the Nativity and his beautiful description of the gentleness that was born with Jesus; and we find a poem by the poet al-Qarawi in which he gives an original analysis of the mystery of the Nativity — but all this does not constitute an independent literary domain in our literature.

The Nativity was not an event that passed in an hour and was done — else it would never have had this standing with literature. It was an event whose meaning is determined anew every year, and more than once a year. The gate of the literature of the Nativity is still open, as it will remain, and much will be added to it year after year. Perhaps this feast will not pass without witnessing a new meeting between these two lovers, literature and the Nativity — and what lovers are there whose memory does not forever draw them together, even if they part?!