By Fadi Abu-Deeb

From the fountains of Lebanon,
He scooped up the delight of sound
In the valleys of Antaradus,
He warmed himself by the hidden flames of sun,
Inside the September fruits.
He transformed the pressed oil into henna
To dye his dusty palm with the odor of a kingdom
That awaits no redemption

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That who walked upon the lake of the deep mind
Climbed up to the peak of Aram
Mounting the vapor of imagination
Fortified by the density of the reveries of thousands and myriads.
Holding, in his hands,
sacrifices of love:
hyssop, wine,
And Magdalenian plaits.

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He thundered at the faces of Jerusalem and Athens,
Demolishing the temples of the dead.
He erected a temple out of light, water and wood,
A temple of roars and beams of light,
Of murmurs of an ancient spell,
Of the mud of unknown suns,
And the foam of an eternal sea.
With his Samsonian arms,
He hurled the soil of the earth
Onto the face of heaven
And proclaimed…
The birth of the White Village.