Rural Poems is one of Charbel Baini's books translated from Arabic into English

My Mother

 

O sacred prayer,

Which I always recite,

In wakefulness and in dreams,

O messenger from God,

To disciple the nations,

And prepare righteous generations.

How many times, in your warm embrace,

Have I built castles of imagination?!

How many times have I climbed your hands

To reach your forehead,

And imprint a kiss upon it,

So that I might return at least some of those kisses,

That you showered upon me?

I have grown up, 

And my love for you has grown with me,

For you yourself are love, prayer, and holiness.

Did not one of the philosophers say:

The world is a mother?

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