O my rose, you flew off like a winged creature

and did not come back as birds are wont to do.

O Lord—the winds assailed her,

and she hovered above the hills and the harbors

and crouched like a crippled bird

upon the face of the ashen swamp.

I watched her in the water at dusk,

the filth circling round and round her,

as if she were a twilight glow amid the darkness;

her petals scattered like potsherds

upon the surface of the ashen, stagnant water,

disdaining its black body.

My grief for her! How abject the captive

trembling in the grip of the abject slave!

O Lord, had You cast her into the brook,

she would have perished dancing for joy,

innocent of the defilement of the mire,

in the slime of the ashen swamp.

Ah, my rose, in your spotless white dress

and your coal-black fortune lies the mockery of fate.

I have no hand in the shining star

that hid itself behind the smothering clouds;

its radiance was lost, like your dewy fragrance

breathing over the ashen swamp.

Had you been a thorn, you would not have feared the winds,

nor tasted the torment of exile;

had the prodding of the insolent reached out to you,

his hand would have come back covered with wounds—

your watering place the sweet stream of the highlands.

And the water quivered at a misgiving that tore

its entrails—at the whisperings of the breeze—

and swallowed the rose; only the perfume

of her drifted on through the cells of the mist,

like the soul of a martyr

risen above the ashen swamp.

(Caracas, Venezuela)

joined by no common language and united by no common system. Some of it imitates the Anglo-Saxons and their ways; some is enamored of the French and their life; and there are other differences that have arisen from the existence of sectarian schools — Islamic, Orthodox, Maronite, and others. How, then, do you expect cooperation, solidarity, and unity of inclinations and directions from groups of differing tastes and upbringing? This is very sad, and it is the disease that is eating us. I assure you that we shall never rise, and there will be no

order in this country, unless the young are raised in one single way and in the love of one single homeland.

Some may find this too difficult where those who have passed school age are concerned. So be it! Naturally it is hard to change these people and to divert the course of their thinking; but we are working now for the young generation and the children, so let us confine our concern to them. I therefore ask the Lebanese government and the Lebanese people to organize a ten-year campaign in which they shall wipe out general illiteracy, illiteracy in the Arabic language, and ignorance in national upbringing and social life. And that by the following means:

1 — Establish in all parts of the country primary and secondary schools, governmental and private, proceeding upon one single curriculum — Lebanese, Arab, and world-minded: I ask for a Lebanese curriculum because we are Lebanese, proud of our Lebanese character and our special traits. I ask that it be Arab because we are Arabs. History and language bind us to the other Arab countries by the bond of neighborhood, of interest, and of aim. And I ask that it be world-minded because the age of isolationism has passed, thank God. The world has begun to cast off isolationism, narrow national racialism, fanaticism, and selfishness, and calls for liberation from the fetters of these backward principles.

2 — Let education be compulsory, fitting young men and young women for work in the country's natural resources — agriculture, industry, and summering — and limit the number of students of the liberal professions and the fine arts, restricting it to those who have the inclination and the gift. For we are in pressing need of producers, and we have professional men in plenty.

3 — Cooperate with the for

eign universities, and make them develop so that they work for the good of Lebanon as though they were national universities. And strive to found a national university in the not-distant future.

4 — Make the teaching of foreign languages compulsory alongside Arabic. And bring into Arabic the scientific, technical, and foreign terms in Arabized form, so that their use becomes easy.

5 — Send scholarly missions of young men and young women to the West, and draw upon their experience in organizing every side of life

in the country, for the sons of the country know the country's needs better than foreigners do, and care more for its interest and its good.

6 — Set aside playgrounds for the little ones, for our children fill the roads and the alleys.

7 — Permit no sectarianism whatever in the institutes of education. Separate religion from the state. Encourage religion in individuals, and let the fear of God and the love of one's neighbor be deep-rooted in the soul of every single person.