Sawt al-Mara — page 51

It is a charming artistic contest, into which we invited our gracious lady readers to enter their children; and we reckoned that the replies would come to us by the dozens — but behold, our reckoning was wrong, and the response is lukewarm and slow...

So "The Woman's Voice," which knows in its readers, women and men alike, their sincere desire to take part in this singular contest, returns today to remind them anew to hasten at once to send us the pictures of their children, together with the literary commentaries...

From The Woman's Voice to its readers

In fulfillment of our promise in the last issue, we shall publish the children's pictures that reach us for entry in the artistic and literary contest. For the present we shall content ourselves with numbering the pictures:

No. (1)

A stance that bespeaks confidence and self-assurance; an innocent smile that pictures gentleness and love; and a gaze laden with smiling hope and a beautiful future.

Who are you, O man who boasts of the bigness of his body?? I, for all the smallness of my body, defy you and mock you... and your father and your grandfather too!!!

Sayings on Childhood

This slumber that flutters over the child's eyes — does any mortal know whence it came?

Yes, they say it dwells in an enchanted village, among the shadows of the dark forest, where the light of the glow-worms gleamed, and two shy, charming buds bent low: from there came the slumber to kiss the child's eyes.

This smile that ripples on the sleeping child's lips — does any mortal know where it was born?

Yes, they say a pale ray of the crescent moon touched the edge of a frail autumn cloud. And on the edge of the cloud, in the dream of a dew-washed morning, a smile was born — the smile that ripples on the sleeping child's lips!