Good Lord — a night at the Opéra, by which honor was done to everyone who ever opened a window or a breach for beauty to look out upon us through — in poetry and prose, in music, in acting, in song...
And in Paris I spent hours visiting the graves... of dogs... I was not moved to laughter by the sight of the women bowing in reverence to lay bouquets of flowers on a grave... nor by what I read carved on every tomb... We are not accustomed to loving animals and treating them gently...
In Paris there are wonders and marvels... in Paris a dog dies like people do!
Switzerland did not make me forget the perfume of Paris, but I loved that self-sufficient, gentle, beautiful country, and I wondered why it did not remind me of Lebanon — that country to which they compare it always and forever... But enough of all this! Lebanon is truly a unique piece in the mosaic of the map!
In Geneva, on one of her great streets, is Lebanon's tourism office, directed by Mr. Izzat Ibrahim al-Hayek. I used to hurry to that office — say rather that little Lebanese pavilion — whenever my legs disobeyed me, or whenever the roads tangled and knotted before me... I used to hurry to Mr. Hayek's office to obtain the key to the problem.
And the editor-in-chief of the "Tribune de Genève" whispered in my ear that our office is the most splendid and most beautiful tourism office they have. Here I was at a loss whom to thank: shall I thank Lebanon for its good choice, or thank our delegate for representing us so well?
There, at a cocktail party, I met the delegates of the world's various countries gathered at the Palais des Nations; the party
was given in their honor by Mr. Mustafa Hassan, head of the Egyptian delegation to the Economic and Social Council in session there.
Truly, it was one of the evenings of a lifetime, spent in the company of my friend Samira Hibr at the "Pearl of the Lake," the loveliest pleasure-haunt in the world, on the shore of Lake Léman...
And many people thought we belonged to the diplomatic corps...
No harm done, at any rate...!
And on the second day, at the luncheon to which His Excellency the Ambassador of Ecuador to the United States, its delegate extraordinary to
In the piazza of Venice, among the doves...
the United Nations, invited us, questions rained down upon us about our country and the people of our country — and Samira's enthusiasm rose to such a pitch that she nearly improvised an oratorical lecture on her Lebanon, surveying every village in it, down to "Bhamdoun the village," to which she went back to spend the rest of the summer season...
The rock of Capri
I came back from the "Pearl of the Lake" reviewing figures and personalities among the women of Lebanon, moved to make the comparison... No — the Lebanese woman is not their inferior in grace and intelligence, praise God... no — the Lebanese woman is far more elegant than they! And here I did not know whether to thank God for it or not!
And what shall I say of hot, clamorous Italy? Italy, who holds in her arms the most beautiful, the oldest, the most splendid things the fingers and hands of man have produced. What shall I say of the Church of Saint Peter, the most splendid church in the world and the vastest... what shall I say of the little great kingdom of the Vatican... what shall I say of the museums whose walls are studded with canvases growing in value day after day... what shall I say of the power of faith that we touch in every monument and in every temple... that power which harnessed