Nazik al-Malaika in Beirut — She Hopes to Meet Fairuz... and Marun Abboud!

'Three days of my life I spent with you in Beirut... and I shall remember them as long as I live...'

So declared, deeply moved, the Iraqi poetess Nazik al-Malaika to the friends seeing her off, just before she boarded the airplane on Monday morning, January 27, returning to Baghdad after the end of her visit to Beirut at the invitation of its men of letters, to take part in the commemoration of Iliya Abu Madi.

... And there is no heart like Nazik al-Malaika's for holding love: she loves Lebanon greatly, and loves its people, and loves this lofty cultural level which one scarcely finds in any other Arab society! Would that it were possible for her to remain in Beirut... to share with its writers and poets their fertile intellectual life... Lebanon is her earthly paradise!

And no wonder Nazik al-Malaika loves Lebanon, which returns her this affection in its deepest and most sincere values and meanings... The literary blocs and circles crowded upon her — inviting her to a poetry evening, to a dinner, to a tea, to a discussion, to an introduction, to anything the poetess might choose and consent to. And so she enjoyed every minute of the length of her stay in Beirut. Her program was watched over with special care by Mr. Youssef al-Khal, proprietor of the magazine 'Shi'r,' and the poet 'Adonis,' who provided her with every means of comfort and pleasure, which left the loveliest impression upon her.

And in a lightning visit to 'The Woman's Voice' magazine, to which Nazik is bound by an old friendship, the poetess asked two things of the editor-in-chief:

first, to meet Fairuz and the Rahbanis; and second, to visit Marun Abboud...

In the evening the Iraqi poetess's party set out for Antelias, and it was a delightful soirée at the home of Assi Rahbani. Nazik realized her first dream: she sat with 'the owner of the most beautiful voice in the world,' as she put it, and listened to new selections of her singing (recorded); and the talk flowed sweetly between music and poetry, and there were spirited rounds on the concept of free verse and prose poetry, whose lines were not finally settled even at the soirée of the following day, to which one of the champions of the contest, the poet Youssef al-Khal, invited guests at his home. At this soirée the air was not perfumed by Fairuz's voice, but she let fly one joke after another, commenting on the poems which the poets vied with one another in reciting, each in turn...

And Nazik's love for Fairuz is a genuine love, for the poetess appreciates in Fairuz her heavenly gifts — the more so as she herself is versed in music, having taken lessons in playing the oud for six years at the Institute of Arts in Baghdad; and at her family gatherings, the members of the household would often join her, playing the violin, the nay, the mandolin, and the drum... they would play and sing as well, and from this her artistic taste quickened and grew...

There remained the visit to Marun Abboud — the fulfillment of the second dream... This too the heavy torrents did not stand in the way of, though the Aley road in this season is desolate and cold; but our venerable man of letters disappointed our hope by his absence from Aley, being in his village, Ain Kfaa, and so Nazik al-Malaika's party turned back without the fulfillment of her second wish!

... And Nazik al-Malaika returned to Baghdad, to her classes and her students, with the smile of happiness and joy on her lips, because she had made room in her heart for rich new friendships in harmony with her delicate, sensitive soul... She returned wishing she could remain in Lebanon forever.