The Fruitful Olive Tree

In the Koura, where the olive tree stands mocking the storms, Fouad Suleiman was born. And he was a fruitful olive tree in the thoughts he gave: if we read them with the eye, we see them as olives; if we press them with the mind, we find them oil; and if we kindle them with the heart, we find them light and fire.

And if "Kanun" has hidden him away in the soil, a body, together with the sowers' seed — after he had delivered his message as poet, writer, and teacher — then "Tammuz" will raise him up in the book, a spirit, together with the harvesters' sheaves, to take up his message again as a national guide.

And if "the storm" has torn him up from among us, without pity for the wife and the children, it cannot tear up the house he built for the new generation. For it was not built of stone and timber and tile, but of thought, creed, and faith — and these the storms only make firmer, stronger, and more shining.

And if the storms will change the face of the East and overturn its conditions, Tammuz will remain, down the passing of the generations, mocking the storms. And history will record that Tammuz is Fouad Suleiman.