by Ameen al-Rihani (1876-1940)

1 – Oh Freedom: When would you direct your face towards the East? When would your light merge with the light of this bright moon so it would rotate with it around the earth and enlighten the darkness of every oppressed people?

2 – When would the religious chasms be obliterated and sectarianism be trampled under the boots of civilization? When would we form the organization of tolerance and build the church of forebearance?. When would we raise and establish the school and journal of tolerance?

3 – I am the flower that bloomed out of the despair of the Prophets. A flower that flourished and then withered and finally its buds were scattered until the seeds of life gushed out of her heart and the winds carried it to the four corners of the earth.

4 – The Great City is the city within whose walls the wolf and the lamb, the tiger and the goat walk together. It is the city in which people find refuge from those who commit falsehood against God and His Prophets, those who are seated on the thrones of false saintliness. The Great City is the place where knowledge, freedom, brotherhood and loyalty reign.

5 – Neither glory nor fame is my ultimate wish, neither dominion nor greatness, nor money nor wealth. I wish to live without hating anyone, and to love without envying anybody, to rise without looking down at anyone. Would that my life shines but without bursting, and be like a heavenly body, not like a rocket.

[Translated from the original Arabic by George N. El-Hage, Columbia University.]