Charbel Baini you are an endless fountain of giving/ Mirna Nehme

   Each time, I receive your books I get overwhelmed with excitement and joy rushing impatiently to read them and drown in them. They are a world filled with love, agony, suffering, revolution and dignity.

   Having read your last two books, I can only state that you once again rose high and high, you lifted our spirits and you took us on amazing journeys. I do not think that I am able to find the suitable words to express my opinion about them.

    "Zilal" demonstrated your affection for different countries ending with deep romantic poems. How beautiful it is.

   "Jinniat Al shajjar!!!" What shall I say? I sensed that I was reading a myth of mystery, a myth of a great unending love which has no barriers and which crosses oceans and continents.

    "Fafi", the engraved legend!!! 

    "Fafi", the goddess of love and humanity!!!

   Yes, my dear Charbel Baini you are an endless fountain of giving, of compassion, of love, of mystery, of dreams and you will never cease to amaze us with your enriching fascinating poetry.

   In the end I would like to say: Thank you Randa Baini for your beautiful pictures on the covers. You are amazing!

THE TRAVEL DUST

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

The travel dust is stuck to my clothes

It multiplies on its own 

It tore my pockets

Its colour the colour of darkness

From it many became crazy 

How does a day face me 

And all the age lying dreams

-2-

A dust that does not have mercy 

On the cry of the yearning 

To the stones of a small house 

They became old 

There in a village on the wind elbow 

Between it and between the sun

It drew a line 

And on the line it set up swings 

To swing poems and longings

-3-

Still the same as I left ages ago

Love and hospitality

Sacrifice and faith

And neighbours from their laughters 

Rise a moon

The word welcome greeted all mankind

And despite the hatred, 

The war, 

The danger craziness 

Neighbours remained 

So Lebanon remained

-4-

How do I accomplish my return?

And the hope bird drowning in my tears

The hands are waving with a scarf 

Long time ago repeating ballads:

The homeland hunger like worries heavy

And Lebanon is not feeling my hunger

**

TIRED

By Charbel Baini

Translated By Mirna Nehme

-1-

My eyes tired of emigration craziness

And talk withered early

Maybe time closed in my face the door

Maybe destiny throwing on my shoulders 

A yoke

My age years wandered like a drain water 

Swallowed by a well

And the well is a small urn 

Next to it a pen and a book

-2-

I do not have the energy 

To overcome the waiting

I hear the horse's neigh 

Coming like a memory

It passes on the night's face 

To erase tomorrow

-3-

Tired walking and worries so heavy

And the wind is messing my years

The illusion made me almost a man

Worried my head is and I am fed up

No country calling me and no babies

No elbows embracing me warming me

I am living on my own

A load on my back

From my isolation oh God spare me.

**

THE ORPHANED

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

An orphaned aged no more than seven years old, they forced her to sell sweets day and night and after fatigue and insomnia exhausted her she plunged in a deep sleep on her sweet platter in the street.

-1-

Oh my sweetheart magic in your eyes 

And the sweet platter is not pretty without you

Your shoe in the leaders’ moustaches

My little one how does the universe sleep?

And the lord of heaven is quiet about the criminality

So this way you close your eyes

-2-

Where is your bed?

Where is a mattress coloured 

With your eyes colour 

Which from our dirt is blackened?

The footpath became your bed 

In front of people 

They take pictures of you

They write news about you 

But their wooden hands 

Did not extend

To rescue you from destiny

-3-

Where are you to hug you? 

To fulfil you of your mother's compassion

To be your father...

To spoil you 

To say to you: 

Inside my heart I lay your place

Sleep my soul and fly away your worry 

The world monsters are lusting for your blood

**

THE AIRSPACE EAGLE

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

Oh airspace eagle rise

Do not be scared from the clouds

And on the light's border land

And with your feathers

Wisk away the dusty days face

-2-

Oh sound of wind

Which is whirling in our ears

We draw a line between tears

And our eyes

And the red groans

-3-

You are from here

Stop oh glory and sing 

We transformed the universe into a paradise

And the paradise guard

God's green cedars

**

HOW DID MY AGE FOLD

Written by Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

The days are rushing

My calendar tired out

With its illusions 

Which played with my migration 

I wish if I can sleep 

And slumber forgets me

In a land thirsting for my eyes tears

To make it love me

And sing for it songs 

Which dreams never heard of

-2-

My length, what is the use of my length

If my width a bird's feather?

My body is a flying air

And walking bored of me

Stop all the watches 

I am scared of being grey 

And my hairs turn messy 

Which are used to be tidy

How did my age fold? 

I could not reach the moon

The moon will disappear 

Wait my moon 

To say goodbye with poetry

-3-

My eyes, woe's urns 

And I put my eyeliner

I am afraid of the night's neigh 

To claim my madness

When I open my hands 

They collect people's dust mocking me 

In their hearts Judas's hatred

In the sea they threw me 

And the wave a horse back 

I rode on my assumptions

And I am without energy

-4-

They changed my name, 

The shape and the address

My age is a breeze 

From its scream I am terrified 

If my paths are finished

My walks die!

If my sins are erased 

My talks live!

My roads, a human being's fatigue

My sins are devil's joy 

Which does not like my life

-5-

Every time the sun rises

My light extinguishes

Oh my age do not hurry 

My flowers did not open

And the bud is still a baby

Without a house, parents

The bees sucked its veins 

Till my roots withered

Oh birds of dawn 

Visit the baby visit

But do not open your mouth 

Or fiddle your worry, 

The desertion's craziness 

And I am scared for my birds

-6-

The coffin is calling out 

To the colourful flowers

Quiet, I said quiet

Since I will die 

Why to be born? 

Why? Tell me why?

To grow old and age?

And living is the biggest lie 

We welcome it with lilies

We farewell it with lilies

**

A RIDE

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

A ride we came and how do we return!?

And when we would laugh 

The eyes produce a tear

And why continue the ride 

And at the end of the ride we will kneel?

-2-

Nor the house embraces 

The people of the house

Nor God is hearing the tyranny cry

Over the innocent 

The evil persons have control

And no one from its creator is scared

-3-

They are kidnapping young brunette girls 

Who did not reach their weaning

Half of them are suckling

They said: by the name of the powerful lord 

It is fine if a baby suffers

-4-

It is permissible if the chastity of the girl Collapsed in front of a bad crook mule!

It is fine for a murderous powerful criminal 

To wed the sun 

And the honour of the girl will be torn!

-5-

Women been sold by a dealer 

To men whom their price is manure 

Which you do not pay for

To men who painted their faces with charcoal

The world vanishes 

And the charcoal does not shine

-6-

They said: it is right to kill the infidels

And people's blood becomes a swamp

They killed each other 

And the neighbour liquidated the neighbour

And in god's paradise he is lusting

-7-

They destroyed the planet

Killing became a belt 

Wrapping a complicated broken universe

A ride its beginning burning and fire

And at its end the cannon is screaming

**

KARAF/ Mirna Nehme

What more is there to say? What words can i use to express my thoughts and feelings about this striking poem which shakes the mind and the inside?
As I was reading it, I felt huge explosions exploding in my heart and soul. Yes, it hits the chore, it shakes the mind and certainly it is a wake-up call.
Congratulations my dear Charbel!!! You raised your voice with fierceness, courage and braveness by addressing crucial matters which are destroying the world with no mercy. The sad thing is there is no remorse.
How can we keep quiet about the rotten politics, about the hypocrisy, about the injustice, about the deterioration of principals, morals and values? How can freedom become so cheap and degrading? How can sinning become normal to us? Have we reached madness or what?
Let us wake up before it is too late, let us unite, let us conquer evil before it drags us more in the black hole and let us clean our hearts with true spirituality, purity and decency so peace, love, justice and harmony reign in the entire universe which is drowning in darkness.

THE PRESENCE OF THE ABSENT

By Charbel Baini
Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-
With the presence of the absent
The evening party rejoiced
And the string got drunk
How beautiful is drunkenness
It made the cedar
Waiting in the high mountain dance
The return of the loved ones
Who prolonged the trip
And Lebanon which does not know hatred
They killed its children
And tarnished the memory
My people I will make them swear
By the cedar's glory by the blood
And by Sannine to be united
Today not tomorrow

-2-
We left families in our country together
Beloved ones became today a story
No eyes can see them and say:
My eyes’ tears wet your pictures
No joy after you is accepted
And no music will affect me
The agony yoke I drag constantly
At dawn break I cry for Lebanon
And at night I cry for my brother
**

LET ME REJOICE

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

For the first time in two years 

I sense the taste of happiness

The world hit me with an eye, 

Hurt me, and after a month it came, 

To embrace me and healed its wounds

-2-

Let me rejoice people 

And wipe from my cheek the tear 

If you taste the bitterness of the cup 

Which I drank in the darkness of days 

You would summarize the age in a week

-3-

Wishing someone to install me a wing 

And fly me in the high

I want to overcome winds 

Which blew in my eyes dust 

And threw me in the hardest situation

-4-

Wishing someone to sing me a song 

And play me music

Escaping from death's hands

And lying under the sun 

Sucking the light from its veins

-5-

High and proud

 Even I am a human being 

Which does not believe in daybreak

I fought hatred with faith 

I stole it from the convent's incense 

And burnt it, to scent the air

-6-

Congratulate me; congratulate the oppressed 

Who never in his age tasted mercy

The clouds started again to gather 

Promise a season of plenty 

And pour on the earth the grace

**

YOU ARE COMING

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

Coming.. you are coming 

Oh, vessel of beginning 

From children's dreams 

Born in a story's heart 

Which does not know an ending 

So they can live in a country 

Its swings are high

Its stars are vines 

And its years are feasts

-2-

You are coming like a giant 

The universe facing you kneeling

And the songs in your ears

The star which does not wake up 

Filled an urn from its tears 

To wash your feet

Oh, you who were the entire world 

You are coming with god's strength

Love bliss in your eyes

-3-

You are coming from fires

A light, a perfume and lilies

Your forehead like a snow 

And the childhood laughter 

Which is confiscated and killed 

Became a prairie space 

And the insulted flag 

Oh, my Lebanese country 

Is raised in the highest tower

-4-

What is the use of sects

And the creator scared of them 

If they kneel and worship?!

And what is the use of joy 

With prayer and devotion 

And your people are homeless?!

Promise me by the right of your children 

By your cross, 

By your crescent,

You may remain free united 

So our nights will shrill 

And you become within us 

The glorified country

**

A POET FAREWELL

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

A farewell party?!

Why we have to say goodbye

And recite poems 

And speeches at your hearing

If we read a poem you wrote

About your parents, 

Your land which you loved 

No matter how far you are

We will fly to be with you?!

-2

You are a poet,

Smartness from your quarry,

And all the rhymes drink from your fountain,

If you sing, the whole world dance 

And in front of your poems it bows

Like a shadow it walks and follows you

-3-

When destiny exploded your tearful 

And with its hard hits it caused you pain

Your loved ones gathered around you 

And hid you in their hearts

Because they loved you so much 

They stood by you against the one 

Wishing you to kneel

-4-

We love you

And this is why we see you 

In our eyes dreams planting you

You are loyalty, honesty, love 

And you have nobility proud in the heart 

On all human kind raising you

-5

Shy I am to make you hear this poem

And all the poems kneeling at your alter

But before you return back to the home land 

The land which riots played with it

I love to say to you: God be with you

**

What can I really say about Mourahaka?/ Mirna Nehme

How do I start and where do I start?

With a great pleasure and surprise I received Mourahaka book which is another wonderful poetry of yours hitting the hearts and the souls. 

What can I really say about Mourahaka?

As I was reading it, I was drowning in each poem which reveals inner painful feelings, emotions and desires during this important stage of our life and which can tear us apart. Yes, we all experience this phase. It is a huge battle for us at the same time. Either we rise above our desires or we allow them to destroy us.

Being opened about such matters require lots of courage and you, my dear charbel were so courageous and fearless to express these sensitive issues which you dealt with during your adolescence and which caused you obviously pain. Yet, you are an awesome person and poet who would not fall for lust and temptations and who is filled with decency, purity, endless love and warmth. 

Finally, I would say: young you are and you will remain so.

MADNESS

By Charbel Baini
Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-
My madness is stronger than their madness
My madness is stronger than their madness
When they become crazy I would be crazier
And when they quieten down as usual
I would see the tears in their eyes
-2-
A cursed coincidence brought us
To a world which did not approve of my arts
My poems, it said: to fire
My thoughts what thoughts!
And to leave a memory
I got mad and tore my clothes
I was sliding on my knees
They were all happy and congratulated me
On my crazy championships
-3-
I socialized with them
Though with the company,
The personality changes quickly
And it does not do me any good
No matter how I screamed how I turned
No matter how I became drowsy
I will remain inside their country
And my kids looking similar to their kids
-4-
That past which still hanging
On the gallows of the blue dream
Hatched before me flowers
And I am still waiting to hatch
Like someone making his tomb a bed,
I slept not feeling the day
**

KADMOUS

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

And you remain Kadmous 

Lord of lords:

Ink, pen, lessons

And two brand new exercise books

-2-

Oh tutor of generations

In your book we read 

How these children 

We make their forehead bigger

-3-

Today we became many

And you were only one 

Writing at the fire light 

And shining like a sun

-4-

Your vessel till today 

Still in our eyes

Do not be afraid 

Sleeping can not get us

-5-

In your feast oh god of letter 

My faith increase

To describe it of description 

My tongue will tire

-6-

Students like flowers 

Are dancing at your feast 

They got drunk and drunkenness 

From the smell of your wine

-7-

What do I tell them about you? 

Oh moon without absence

I will explain to them 

That you have been dead for ages 

And yet you have not become soil.

**

TWO HANDFULS OF MONEY

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

Do not die in your desertion do not die 

And leave your soil curse you in the tomb

Go and spend your life in Beirut 

And shake off your wings from the agony dust

-2-

You remain a stranger in your desertion oh sober 

Even if your house is filled with maids

Come on let us together cling to a handful of winds 

And return to the land of pride

-3-

Let us together expel the house foreigner 

Who ignited in the home hatred and fire

Who allowed the sky to blacken with its poisons

Who allowed with his lies a neighbour slaughter a neighbour

-4-

We who were living in prosperity 

Dancing and walking like a peacock

We betrayed our country and the cedar dignity 

And we sold pride with two handfuls of money

-5-

We are running and gathering mirage in our desertion 

Destroying the age and wasting it with delusion

And our kids whom we are forgetting behind doors 

They are growing and in their hearts a waterfall of poison

**

MY VOICE IS HUSKY

By Charbel Baini
Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-
My voice is husky and my larynx
Dried out of your dust blow
And the song which you were
Was slaughtered thrown on your rocks
Return the song, oh my country
And the laughter to your children's lips
Return my power, my glories
To light the star facing you
My voice is husky and dreaming
Come back and sing, oh my country
Tune out the “oud” and sing for you:
Oh “ghzayil” with dignity
You are in love but suffering
Let us come back to our land
And bring back the youth Era
-2-
Oh “ghzayil” say to him and repeat:
The cedar flag we respect
Remaining for us all Lebanon
From the coast to the hills
-3-
Oh “ghzayil” in our desertion
We did not forget our village
Spread the news of our return
Prior to the sunset
-4-
Oh “ghzayil” whatever strikes it
We are, yes we are its beloved
Mixture from its soil
That land full of goodness
-5-
My voice is husky and for you
I'll knit from “OFI” your scarf
And rejoice when my flute cries
Bring down its tears facing you
What do I say, do I say?
I'm trying from your mountain's rock
And from the strength of your men's faith
Steal, oh my country, your song:
They said: money to you
 I said: I do not want it
I want the glory as a mole on my cheek
I am from a country its cedars are jewels
And its soil of gold shining in my hand
-6-
My voice is husky, and my hope
Erase with the tunes the darkness
And hum bit of “qarradi”
Growing living in my mind
Want to sing for you my country
Scared of myself for myself:
My country answer my country
Strikes are many
The spring is running beside you
And my heart on fire
-7-
No matter what happens don't say
They forgot the days
They forgot the childhood period
In desertion of dreams
The soul in your love blended
Hard for us to sleep and see you killed
With the hands of disgrace
-8-
My voice is husky and my faith
In you my country allowed me
Raise the voice and sing for you
I'll plant your name on my lips
And carry your cross on my shoulders
And blow out with tears your rage
Maybe my tender country
In my sound and my eyes tears
Repay you bit of your gratitude.
“Ghzayil, Ofi, Qarradi, Oud, Lebanese names represent our songs, poetry and music”
**

Three translated poems by Mirna Nehme

By Charbel Baini

Translated By Mirna Nehme

**

STRANGE
-1-
Strange the places strange
And the childhood laughters a moaning
Oh sun of love do not disappear,
Shine, My night is gloomy
-2-
The long roads stole me
And threw me at doors and doors
Birds of distance tell me
Why is sorrow meant for me?
-3-
Yearning for the eyes of the loved ones
For the laughs in sleepless evenings
To say: Oh anguish hide!!
The moon will come back to my country
**
A SOIL IS WALKING
-1-
As a rock you would be oh human
And as leaves the trembling hits you
All the creation created by the ruler
Soil returned soil and soil is walking
-2-
Fear god do not fear people
What good will splendour serve you?
Oh if you only taste the bitterness of the cup
You would laugh at the narrowness of your mind
-3-
Your clothes are clean
Your body is dirty
And your appearance from a distance
Is beautiful oh human being!
But, you are an imposter
And your mind is stained with things
Which evil does not know yet
-4-
Do not kneel and pray to the lord of the universe
And your heart is filled with hatred for people
And your injustice: if you treat unjustly god help
You would slaughter a baby to drink a cup
-5-
Not every prayer raises you up
Even if you pray day and night
What is the use of praying wrongly?
And eyes spark flame and fire.
**
A STRANGE WORLD

-1-
A stranger lost in a strange world
Filled with worry
Its brown face traces gloomy
In a blood colour
Its sky rumbles, its cloud, weird,
Rains poison
And when it extends its horrifying hands
And opens the mouth
Its people increase but the tragedy
They don’t have a mother!
-2-
If a boat carries you to this world
Without a sail
And you saw the earth's dress torn
In a shape of villages
Full of poverty and heavy chest
And hungered people,
By the road, gather a bunch of lily
And kneel on a rock and say:
The flowers are for someone like me,
His age perished,
And for an illusion's pride arrogant
Sold his life
-3-
A world, its sun extinguished in my hands
And its moon vanished
I harvested grievance for it a harvest
And I knitted it as clothes
I squeezed despair with my stubborn tears
And I poured it like a drink
I washed agony in my joyful seas
And I opened doors
I whisked their dust to became new
Without fatigue
**

CONVOYS MEN

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-

Convoys men departed, hurried walking 

They left the cedar's home in agony

They planted the seasons, seasons of plenty

And set up their tents in another country

The dew got upset

The bird's voice became husky

And the poplar branches leaned withered

-2-

And who migrated 

Hard for him to return

Escaping from deportation 

Of the power of the Canon

From a politic of puzzles

From a wider tyranny

From a huge sea's mouth, 

Children it is swallowing

-3-

Kids thrown like flowers 

On the edge of ditches, tyranny dug

And their eyes lit at night 

On a shining dawn

On the remains of a dream

They died out and became a thousand story

About a land longing for the taste of peace

-2-

And who lives treason 

No shame for him to leave

And steps in the middle of the sea 

Enduring desertion

Who tasted abandonment 

It is tough for him to hope for rightness

And dream in a mattress of flowers 

On a velvet rug

-4-

But if we remember the days 

Before the war broke 

How we raced with dreams

How arrogant we were 

Towards the kings of the universe

We would say: our joy is when we sleep 

Under the shade of our green cedar

-5-

And we fold yesterday's book

And we build our happiness

A wedding is not a wedding 

Without our drunkenness

We who gave the sun 

From our joy's light 

We refuse despair 

To play with our lives

**

A FOOL IS ASKING

By Charbel Baini

Translated by Mirna Nehme

-1-
Migration with black eyes
Not even twenty said:
What are you hoping for?
My miserable poet
You are drawing the return
On rising waves,
Between you and them years
 Here you have a house,
There you do not
You carried your hardship and left,
No one supported you
Nor the government wants you
Nor your people embraced you
And the soil was disgusted
From the sweat of your elbow
I am the only one
Who protected from treason
To overcome your conditions
Who are you without migration?
Tired out by your letters,
Crucified by your poetry
And blood on your palms
They expelled you, I took you in
They hated you, I loved you
You gathered my money,
You were bountiful to your country
You married me, 

And you deprived me of your children
Why are not you satisfied?
You are living in my heart
And your heart in Lebanon
-2-
I told it: I did not betray you
During these years
Nor did I forget your remunerations
In you I endured agony
To repay you your sorrow
With my body perspiration 
I scented your feet,
Gather the gift
And scatter it on you
I came to you young
And I forgot to flirt
In you I suffered so much
And the age goes on
Where will I be!?
A fool is asking!?
**