Like water
The heart is like water
Passions agitate its surface
Rippling water in water
Creature-like, an utterance
Commingles both the good and bad
Like time, human beings body forth
As much of darkness as of light
Just as day illuminates before the night
So an extinguished star begets
Another brilliance
Similar to our vanished forbears
So we, similarly, must disappear
Time alone ensures its own endurance
As plainly as you can plainly see
Strangers in their native land are
Ardent practitioners of good
Whose intimates sever ties and turn
Frequentation to a widening gulf
Remember, should you have sealed
Friendship in the throes of poverty
Should prosperity arrive, remember
Al Ma'arri
Al-Ma'arri (full name in Arabic: أبو العلاء أحمد بن عبد الله بن سليمان التنوخي المعري, Abu al-'Alā Ahmad ibn 'Abd Allāh ibn Sulaimān al-Tanūkhī al-Ma'arri, December 26, 973–May 10 or May 21, 1057) was a blind Arab philosopher, poet and writer. He was a controversial rationalist of his time, he attacked the dogmas of religion, and rejected the claim that Islam possessed any monopoly on truth.Abu 'Ali al-Muhassin al-Tanukhi (Tanukhi) was born in Syria and lost his sight at the age of four due to smallpox. He hailed from the city of Ma'arra (المعرة) in Syria from which his name derives. He then went on to study in Aleppo, Antioch, and other Syrian towns pursuing a career as a freethinker, philosopher and poet before returning his native town of Ma'arrat al-Numan, where he lived the rest of his life, practicing asceticism and vegetarianism.
He briefly travelled to the center of Baghdad where he drew a great following of both male and female disciples to listen to his lectures on poetry, grammar and rationalism. One of the recurring themes of his philosophy was the rights of reason against the claims of custom, tradition and authority.
Although an advocate of social justice and action, Al-Ma'arri suggested that women should not bear children in order to save future generations from the pains of life.
Al Ma'arri was exerting a notable influence on Dante's "The Divine Comedy". His collection of poems "Unnecessary Necessity" charts the tragic dimension of human experience.
