Your Garden!

“Inspired by the garden of Mrs. Adelaide Richani, when the first plans were laid for founding a Lebanese national branch of international child welfare.”

In fairy tales ...
I have read of such a garden ...
And in my dreams ... I have often visited
such a garden ....
And I never knew ..
that stillness had such a quiet depth
until ...
I took shelter in the spreading shade of your garden ...

It is a blessing ..
those arches, hanging from the old
pepper tree, as though ... they carried us
a promise from earth and heaven ..
while we sip tea and build for this dear
project of ours ..
as though something told us that our dreams,
all of them ...
will come true.

And when I gaze at the bright flowers
as they smile at the sun, I see in every flower
a child’s face looking upward, and I hear
the children’s supplications: “Help them, O God,
to make this world of ours safe and serene.”

Translated by: A J Sh