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Love Poems & Proverbs from the Middle East
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Love Poems & Proverbs from the Middle East

Love Poems & Proverbs from the Middle East
By Nora Al-Taha
February 14th, 2021
Words cannot fully describe the exquisite feelings of love

but that never stops a poet from trying. Arabs and Middle Easterners have been writing about the matters of the heart for centuries, looking for a way to effectively share and understand this strong emotion. As love comes in all shapes and sizes—be it gratitude, longing or impeccable admiration—here are a few moving love poems by beloved Middle Eastern poets:

Nizar Qabbani

The day I met you 
I tore up all my maps 
all my prophecies 
like an Arab stallion 
I smelled the rain of you 
Before it wet me 
heard the pulse of your voice 
before you spoke 
undid your hair with my hands 
before you had braided it

Fawziyya Abu Khalid Distances of Longing

When you go away and I can’t 
follow you up with a letter, 
it is because the distance 
between you and me 
is shorter than the sound of 
Oh, because the words are 
smaller than the distance of my 
longing.

Al-Abbas Ibn Al-Ahnaf

You departed from my sight 
and entered my thoughts, 
travelled from my eyes 
to my heart.

Kahlil Gibran

Between what is said and not 
meant And what is meant and 
not said Most of love is lost.

Rumi

The minute I heard 
my first love story, 
I started looking for you, 
not knowing 
how blind that was. 
Lovers don’t finally meet 
somewhere. 
They’re in each other 
all along.

Hafez

Even after all this time, 
the sun never says to the earth 
“You owe me.” Look what 
happens with a love like that. It 
lights up the whole sky.

Love Proverbs

When less is more, and the word ‘love’ holds immense vitality in the spectrum of emotions, proverbs offer a way to express the indescribable. With only a handful of words, proverbs offer simple but effective ways to express the emotions of love.

Far from the eyes, away from the heart.

A love out of sight is a love away from the heart.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

When you are away from those you love, you miss them and feel more affection for them, realizing what you have with them is special.

The heart wants what it wants.

The heart is a stubborn organ. No matter what the truth is, we believe what we believe and want what we want.

There is no difference between a wise man and a fool when they fall in love.

No matter how much knowledge a wise man possesses or how little a fool has, both are in love’s great exposure when they fall in love—no logic or wisdom could save them from what they feel.

Hearts close together.

Two people are closely connected to each other in their hearts; they think of one another and connect on a deeper level.

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