John Green Reads Poetry

J: I’m doing well. I’m just back from northern Jordan where I spent the last few days visiting refugee camps and Syrian refugees who are living in cities in Jordan. Most of the over six hundred thousand refugees from the Syrian war living in Jordan are living not in camps but in cities.

J: It was a fascinating trip, very emotionally exhausting. At times very difficult, but also I feel really really lucky to have been able to go and to have been able to hear some of the stories of refugees, their families and also stories from people living in Jordan about, you know, how the refugee crisis has reshaped their country since ten percent of all people living in Jordan right now are Syrian refugees. More than a quarter of people living in Lebanon right now are Syrian refugees. The scope of the problem is truly overwhelming, and I think it was really important to me to be able to go there to get a human sense of it, you know. To be able to see it not in terms of hundreds of thousands and millions, and big statistics, but instead in terms of actual people. 

…

J: Hank, would you like a short poem for the day?

H: Sure.

J: All right. I picked a short poem today from a Syrian poet, Nizar Qabbani. This is called “Light is More Important Than the Lantern”. It’s translated by B. Frangieh and C. Brown. I don’t know who those people are. But, “Light is More Important Than the Lantern”, by Nizar Qabbani:

(Reads translated poem)

J: “Light is More Important Than the Lantern,” by Nizar Qabbani.

H: That was lovely.

Light is more important than the lantern,
The poem more important than the notebook,
And the kiss more important than the lips.

My letters to you
Are greater and more important than both of us.
They are the only documents
Where people will discover
Your beauty
And my madness.

يمكنك قراءة قصيدة “الضوء أهم من الفانوس” لنزار قباني بالنص العربي الكامل من خلال الرابط التالي على موقعه الرسمي
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