"Lebanon the Poet"

A new book added to the shelves of the Arabic library. It is one of the publications of al-Hikma, running to two hundred and twenty-one pages, from the pen of a poet of Lebanon, Mr. Salah Labaki, president of the Ahl al-Qalam society, with a foreword by Mr. Fouad Kanaan, editor-in-chief of the magazine al-Hikma.

"Lebanon the Poet" is a series of lectures which Mr. Labaki delivered on his journey to Egypt, in preparation for the Conference of Arab Writers which convened at Beit Mery...

These lectures are a delightful "film" — or rather a fascinating survey — of the generations of Lebanese Arabic poetry and their development, from the age of resurgence — that is, the first half of the nineteenth century — and the age of the renaissance — its second half — down to this silver age, if the expression is sound, the age of symbolism.

And Salah Labaki speaks to you of Lebanese Arabic poetry and its poets, at home and in the Mahjar, without confusion or complication — drawing not on poetic authenticity alone, but on understanding and study of the different generations, together with the events and influences that preceded or accompanied them, treating the various poetic schools now by analysis and now by comparison. In all this he neither flatters faces nor sets one school above another; gentle in what he says, courteous in what he points out, and most often calling the words of others to his aid.

And despite the splendid intro-duction with which he prefaced his book, defining "the poetic spirit and beauty," we see him standing humble and reverent in the sanc-tuary of verse, respecting the rites of every devotee. And no wonder:

for poetry with him is like worship — an art; and art is beauty; and beauty is a harmony of lights and shadows from the reflections of life upon the page of the heart.

In sum, "Lebanon the Poet" is a radiant face among the faces of beloved Lebanon, resident and emigrant, which Mr. Labaki lifts high to be a lamp for the rising generations and a spur to the new cohort...

• The book "A Sigh from My Country" by Mrs. Emily Fares Ibrahim has appeared. The book is a life story of the late woman of letters Salma Sayegh. Mrs. Emily moves through Salma Sayegh's life stage by stage, laying the stress on the writer's overflowing womanliness and on her extra-ordinary moral and literary gifts — matched against an ill fortune which her life went on wrestling, and which wrestled her, until at last it prevailed over her and won.

The author presses on in

telling the story of the writer Salma Sayegh with the ardor of a devoted woman — and who is more capable than a woman of venturing into these delicate, thorny paths?? Mrs. Emily Fares Ibrahim has succeeded, in a sound and flowing language, in doing her friend the finest act of devotion. If the book has one fault, it is the haste in which it appeared, which has marred it with some errors.

• "New and Old" — a book issued by "Dar al-Thaqafa" in Beirut, by Mr. Marun Abboud. It is a precious book, running to 320 pages, comprising studies, criticism, and discussions of the elite of our contemporary men of letters, such as Farah Antun, Gibran and Mayy, al-Shidyaq, Father Lammens, Omar Fakhoury, Abu Shabaka, Fouad Suleiman,

Abd al-Qadir al-Mazini, Ali Mahmoud Taha, Khalil Mutran, al-Alayili, Said Takieddine, Amin