I wish I can live...

I wish I can live this life in my solitude and isolation
spending my days in the mountains and the woods
between the pine trees, not having worldly cares that
can shift the self from listening to the soul
I’d await death and life, and I’d attentively listen to
the speech of forever and more
I’d sing with the robins in the woods and listen to
the lapping rivers in the valleys
I’d speak lovingly to the stars and the dawn,
the birds and the river and the calm sunlight
A life lived for beauty and art, away from my
people and my country, not weary with the cares of people,
for they live a life of the still lifeless objects
and to live with what lays within me whether
sorrow or novel joy, away from the city and its people away
from the jargon of their societies, for they only descend from lies,
naivety, and common nonsense
where is this life for which I long?
where I can hear the lands barmaid singing and lapping,
and the echoes of the heart and the song of the singer
and the sounds and rustling of tree branches in their shade
and the scent of flowers, this is the life I praise,
I call for its glory and call for its brilliance




Abu Al Qassim Al Shabbi


photo: Ines Belkahla