Dos de Nizar Qabbani

Equation

I love you
therefore I am
in the present.
I write, beloved,
and retrieve the past.


Language

When a man is in love
how can he use old words?
Should a woman
desiring her lover
lie down with
grammarians and linguists?

I said nothing
to the woman I loved
but gathered
love’s adjectives into a suitcase
and fled from all languages.