poetry · Issue No. 12, December 1949 · p. 13

What They Said of May

Elias Fayyad and Chafic Maalouf

قالوا في مي · الياس فياض، شفيق المعلوف

O May — and the days have left me no fancy in my mind —
what can a poet attempt in your praise, a poet who feels his own helplessness?
O daughter of Lebanon, to you the Nile itself comes humbly.

Elias Fayyad

Daughter of the mountains, foster-child of the Pyramid —
can any living soul not know her name?
We never met magic flowing from a pen
but we cried out: this is "May"!

Chafic Maalouf

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