Two Poems: Spring... — The Caravan

Rose Ghorayeb's writing is not confined to the didactic vein, to thought and criticism; it passes beyond them to pure, delicate poetry, which has the freshness of dewy spring and the plaintiveness of music. The soul rests easy in the flow of its verses, in simplicity and elegance, and in a gentle realism! How like two canvases by a skilled painter are these two poems of Rose Ghorayeb!

Green, green everywhere —
a flood looms into view;
of moist leafage it has stretched a curtain
that spreads its shade over every house,
as though the fields had become, and the plains,
seas billowing beyond seas.

And above the trees,
thousands of broidered cloths
unfurl about the necklaces of blossom,
folding one hand and stretching out another
for the pearls of the dew to fall within.

Do you hear, dear,
this ringing
that calls the sleepers at dawn?
This is the ringing of the caravan,
moving its unhurried steps
over the plains,
over the lowlands,
while the light of morning
has not yet gleamed.
Before it a gentle donkey-foal
crosses with it the wide waste,
beneath a boundless sky,
in the heat of a long-blazing sun...

A long file
of she-camels,
of companions and fellow travelers,
walks to the sound of the driver's chant,
gliding across the breadth of space...
Do you hear, dear,
this ringing
resounding in the ears of the dreamers?
The fall of footsteps
upon the pebbles,
the rustle of the camels' pads
upon the sands...