"A Mouth"

... Lebanon still bids farewell, from time to time, to pieces of its own flesh, which the sea carries off in pursuit of "the splendid legend!"

In the latest company that left us for Venezuela was the poet Fouad al-Khashin, accompanied by his gracious wife, Mrs. Adal.

We publish this delicate poem by the poet al-Khashin on the occasion of his departure, wishing him a speedy return "and heaps upon heaps of emeralds and rubies!!"

From "the Family of the Inspired Mountain"

To her of the fiery, arched mouth

Is that a rose... or a mouth,
or a bud of fire,
above it longing pants
and wishes murmur,
behind a shadow of sorrow
that roamed there, seeking its way!
The smile of a wound!! Who has seen
the lip of a wound smile?!

★

In its confiding it is a yearning
and a prayer murmuring,
and when it closes you would think it
a rosebud gathering in
the melted dew from lips
where the blood has blazed,
where a smile dies away
in which all song has died.

★

Its sweetness beguiles you — a bud
that grows shy when it is kissed;
the stars have wounded it at morning
with their passions,
for it the clouds have yearned
and stars have poured themselves out,
and over it the full moon, entranced,
went dreaming through the night!

★

Feed it... for in our land
the cherry of the hillside bears fruit,
and grant it — for there is
no sin in the kiss of a rose —
and seize love before
love's season is cut away,
lest you bite a finger
over which stinginess repents!