Dizziness
Let the rock fertilise to protect us from the fever of dizziness
Fix the moment into eternity
Freeze the wave that hurts us
Into the ogre's belly
If you truly are
The god of all seasons
A voice then will whisper:
"What use is it to throw a purple veil
Over this cursed vision"
My soul cried with pain
As cold and dead I walked
Across the markets of the city
While crowds were consumed by a ring of fire
How could I protect them from fire, from dizziness?
Dig more deeply, gravedigger
Dig the grave, dig
Khalil Hawi
(1919 – 1982)
One of Lebanon's best-known twentieth-century poets.
Born in Huwaya (Syria), Khalil Hawi grew up in Shwayr (Lebanon).
He studied philosophy and Arabic at the American University of Beirut, and he obtained a scholarship to enroll at Cambridge University, in England, where he was awarded his Ph.D. in 1959.
He then became a professor of Arabic literature at the American University in Beirut.
Within a few years, he established himself as one of the leading avant-garde poets in the Arab world.
His poetry relies heavily on symbols and metaphors and images, and it frequently has political and social overtones.
An Arab nationalist at heart, he repeatedly expressed his sense of shame and rage at the loss of Palestine in 1948 and at subsequent Arab defeats at the hands of Israel.
He lamented what he saw as the Arab world's political and cultural decay, and he expressed deep pessimism about the possibility of a true Arab cultural and political revival.
After 1975, Khalil Hawi experienced the desperation felt by all Lebanese who had to watch their country's slow descent into chaos, internal disintegration, and manipulation by outside powers.
He was outraged by Lebanon's inability to stand up to the Israeli army when the latter invaded on 3 June 1982, and he deeply resented the other Arab governments' silence about the Israeli invasion.
He committed suicide on 6 June 1982.
