On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and
Other Poetry of Nizar Qabbani
(Poetry Series)
A Tribute To Love And Life
In this collection of poems by one of the Ar ab worlds greatest love poets,
the author pays homage to th e grace and beauty of women and takes on
those who dare to i mpose taboos on women and love.
Personal Review: On Entering the Sea: The Erotic and Other
Poetry of Nizar Qabbani (Poetry Series)
I had thought your love would end my estrangement
but you passed like water between my fingers
~Nizar Qabbani

In my eternal search for poetry infused with images of water and passion,
"On Entering the Sea" appeared on the Amazon horizon. How I love this
site and the ability to locate life-enhancing selections of great beauty.
The poetry of Nizar Qabbani requires atmosphere and an imagination
willing to travel beyond the daily drudgery of existence into longings for
home, passionate encounters and the mysteries of sensation. At times his
poems have echoes of ancient works that intertwine themselves with
modern complexity. His work celebrates the love of country, women and
sensuous images of coffeehouses and Andalusian experiences.
I write
to save the woman I love
from the cities of no poetry,
of no love
the cities of frustration and gloom
I write to make her a misty cloud
Only woman and writing
Save us from death.
As an introduction to Nizar Qabbani, On Entering the Sea presents his
work in a pleasing arrangement by translator. While the introduction by
Salma Khadra Jayyusi presents an overview of the book, how I wished for
a section at the end to explain the details behind many of the poems.
Would this enhance my enjoyment or do the poems speak of moments so
profound, no other explanation is needed? It could be said that many of his
poems have a universal appeal and need no further explanation.
While his words glow with a love for the female essence in life and in
women, he also explores thoughts of protecting his home, lands he loves
and a different perspective on war and loss. "Posters" may be shocking to
some and yet it is a representation of how Nizar Qabbani sees the world
and wishes for peace all while declaring war on pride. It is highly political
and yet he delves into the heart of freedom for all people. Although, I think
there are poems I have yet to read which apparently display a more
revolutionary approach, although this is not foreign to poets the world over.
I enjoyed reading Jerusalem:
Jerusalem, beloved city of mine,
tomorrow your lemon trees will bloom,
your green stalks and branches rise up joyful,
and your eyes will laugh...
He experienced so much pain and loss and was very controversial,
especially in his hometown in Damascus where he challenged cultural
taboos. Too often I think we as a society have condemned the erotic, all
while longing for erotic pleasures of our own. Nizar Qabbani not only sets

desire free in poems, he sets women free from oppression. In "Diary of an
Indifferent Woman," he writes as a woman:
I want to escape from my own skin
from my own voice, from my own language
and stray like the fragrance of gardens
I want to flee from my own shadow
and from all addresses
By the end of the poem he talks about crystal bottles with dead butterflies
and the images become revelations of eternal struggles for independence
and for the freedom to love. During his teenage years, his sister committed
suicide, because she could not marry the man she loved.
Time after time Nizar Qabbani displays an exceptional understanding of
what it means to be female all while revealing what it means to be a man.
Insatiable physical love and ecstasy from the sheer vision of a woman
become spiritual expressions of love for God himself. "The Book of Love"
is worshipful and timeless.
The name of my love.
I wrote it on the water.
I did not know
That the wind rushes by without listening,
That names dissolve in the water.
He also asks: "What is Love?" Then he humorously explains how he
cannot change the woman he loves for she is "a storm trapped in a bottle."
Most of the poems are pleasing and passionate, but there are poems
displaying private pain and horror as love is ripped from his hands by the
ravages of terror. He perfectly describes his grief in an unusual moment
where he is standing in the rubble of an attack and remembers his wife
and the cadence of her name.
As he finds her handbag in the rubble, we are convinced no man has ever
loved his wife this deeply, and yet the universal message makes us realize
how many have loved and lost and longed for a woman like Balquis Al-
Rawi. The vision he paints of honey, jasmine moons, rubies and roses will
remain in my memory for as long as I love poetry. As in many passionate
poems, the feelings of the poet flowed through me and appeared in tears.
His poem about his mother's death is equally poignant and we are left with
the scent of coffee, cardamom seeds and orange blossom water.
If you are a lover of world poetry, the poems of Nizar Qabbani are
essential reading. Through his poems you feel the ancient longings of all
people in all lands and in his uncensored thoughts, we can truly
experience life through his eyes. I can only hope more of his work is
translated in the near future. The exciting element of his poetry is often

how he absorbs experience and then defeats his own inner tyranny by
writing exactly what he thinks to display the beauty of truth. You will hear
echoes in his writing and realize how many contemporary spiritual
teachers and poets have been students of his poetry.
To peace...
~The Rebecca Review
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