In the Presence of the One I Love/في حضرة من أهوى

Dr. Shihab Ghanem

I sit beside the sea of your light.

One evening in the silence of night,

An autumn of songs

Was spreading over the horizon, a thread of a smile, a wisp

of weeping.

A sob of age, it appears as laughter,

But it is not laughter, it is pain, it is bleeding.

You are a solemn vow, hidden in everything.

Shining like light, your sword brings light,

Brightening us, and your heart belongs to the face of a prophet.

Change in the bitterness of time, the taste of giving…

In the dark I open outlets to you

So I may contemplate your secret

Sometimes my soul is orphaned by agony

Other times, tormented by the pain of negligence

I listen in reverence while you play

A chord that never sleeps

I feint like a clever sword

I gaze, you are there calling

My heart is immersed in your light

I come awake,

Drawn to possibility

by a flock of steenboks

في حضرة من أهوى

I sat down to the sea of Newark

In the night lull. .

One evening

It was autumn songs

Stretching on the horizon is a thread of smile,

And thread crying

An old age, like laughter, but it is

Not laughing, crying, bleeding.

And I was like the covenant, in all things good

Bahi al-Yazdah, shines your sword in us,

And brighten your heart and the face of a prophet

Changes in bitter time taste tender.

***

And open in darkness you outlets

So that I will seek you secretly, but my soul,

Tortured in orphanage sometimes, and sometimes

My spirit is tormenting you from the wound

And I listen to you, to hear, to play from you

On a chord, does not sleep, turns a sword

Very subtle

And Arno, there you are calling,

My light will overwhelm my heart

And you are likely,

Leading to her flock of antelopes