Saturday, January 16, 2010

Balqais, Gihane, Mumtaz Mahal or XYZ?

Sometimes we hear the story of a man or a woman who lost his /her soul mate/partner/husband/wife and was never able to commit again. Not any kind of commitment, not a new love, marriage or even dating. Loss of this partner means end of life to the living partner. The so called “one-woman-man”
This kind of love is beautiful, very deep, very special, very dear, very rare, very precious, very fulfilling, very consuming of one’s soul - but also very painful.

Nizar Qabbany never really got over the death of his wife Balqais, lived 17 years lonely in London till he died, still loving her, cherishing their memories and never able to mention her name without tears filling his eyes.”Balqais” one of his most beautiful poems, telling how deep his love to her is rooted in his soul, how empty his soul is after her death:
بلقيس
لا تتغيَّبِي عنّي
فإنَّ الشمسَ بعدكِ
لا تُضيء على السواحِلْ . .
بلقيسُ ..
كيف أخذتِ أيَّامي .. وأحلامي ..
وألغيتِ الحدائقَ والفُصُولْ ..
يا زوجتي ..
وحبيبتي .. وقصيدتي .. وضياءَ عيني ..
قد كنتِ عصفوري الجميلَ ..
فكيف هربتِ يا بلقيسُ منّي ؟..
نامي بحفْظِ اللهِ .. أيَّتُها الجميلَةْ
فالشِّعْرُ بَعْدَكِ مُسْتَحِيلٌ ..
والأُنُوثَةُ مُسْتَحِيلَةْ


"جيجي، كلما غنيت من بعدك ، أبكاني غنائي"
Words found in Halim’s diary, to the only woman he truly loved in his life and actually proposed to, but never married, for she died after a short serious illness.
He never got over her death, never loved any other woman. rumours about his marriage were answered by a sad statement “my heart is buried with her”
he kept her identity for as long as he lived to protect her name and memory. Her name is known through his writings about her and to her.

Taj Mahal or "Crown Palace" – expressing the deep love and pain of Shah Jahan for the loss of his wife Mumtaz Mahal. it is "Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passions of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones." It is a celebration of woman built in marble and that’s the way to appreciate it."

My question is:
Would you choose to live such a deep, everlasting love story for as long as you shall live, with one single person, never loving someone else if s/he is gone?
Or rather live a normal up & down life with pleasure and sorrow, love or not, with one or more partner?

Would you choose to be Balqais, Gihane, Mumtaz Mahal, Nizar, Halim, or XYZ?

8 comments:

  1. I would choose loving the one and only no matter how much it would take.

    I loved the poem so much ;)

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  2. Zou, i meant by my question would you choose that overwhelming love-style, being a one-partner-person or rather have a normal life, where there would always be the possibility of a new partner?
    those i mentioned here have chosen the difficult way, one-partner-person as they couldnt overcome the death of their lovers and fell in love again.

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  3. the poem is called
    قصيدة بلقيس
    he wrote it after her death, and is considered one of hsi best.
    you can find it at this site-together with other poems for him:
    www.adab.com - choose nizar qabbani

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  4. for me, i would combine both kinds of love & living.
    i choose to love as devotedly as these 3 examples, but if i am the one who will be gone,
    then i want my partner to move on wiht his life, fell in love again and be happy.
    dont want to know that he will be miserable for a reason neither of us can control.
    la2, i want him to be happy.
    for so much i love him

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  5. and that was what i meant by my answer. i choose the hard way. and i'm kind of selfish, maybe i would wish for him to move on, for his sake of not living a miserable life. Yet, if i knew it would tear me apart knowing that he was able to get over me.

    So the first option it is. and i'm selfish ma3lesh. neither him nor I would fall in love again if this was in my hands.

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  6. you are not selfish. this is the human nature. and if u choose the hard way to go, then its perfectly understandable that you wish to receive the same intensity of feelings.
    but i am not sure such examples exist.
    on the other hand when i think about him grieving over me for long, my heart gets too soft. i dont want him to suffer.
    its too hard to see the man you so much love- suffer. even if its grieving over me.

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  7. you have a point :)

    bas i'm not leaving my imagination to go that far so i won't get soft about it :D

    ReplyDelete