Yearning - Anonymous

Happy name; I you, my brethren, who, not ever doomed to roam.
In the Eternal Father's mansion from the first have dwelt at home.

Prayer against the evil spirits - anonymous

Destructive storms and evil winds are they,

An evil blast that heraldeth the baneful storm, 

An evil blast, forerunner of the baneful storm. 

The Disavowal - Muthaffar al-Nawab

My son, when your rib supported mine

you restored it and set it straight

My son, take me to the feast in your arms

Count the white hairs I reaped from your life

Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness - Rabi’a of Basri

Brothers, my peace is in my aloneness.

My Beloved is alone with me there, always.

The Adieu - Abou Mohammed

The boatmen shout, "'Tis time to part,

No longer can we stay;"—

'Twas then Maimuna taught my heart 

How much a glance could say.

The Postman - Buland Al-Haydari

What do you want postman?

I am far away from the world

with no doubt you are mistaken...

since there is nothing new

that the world can bring to this fugitive.

Love Song For Words - Nazik al-Malaika

Why do we fear words

when they have been rose-palmed hands,

fragrant, passing gently over our cheeks,

and glasses of heartening wine

sipped, one summer, by thirsty lips?

The legend of Sargon - Anonymous

Sargon, the mighty king, king of Agade, am I.

My mother was a high priestess, my father I knew not. 

The brothers of my father loved the hills.

Lay she naked in the sea - Anonymous

Lay she naked in the sea

All the salt would sweetened be.

Showed she in the sunset West

Eastward-praying Christian even

Would look back and think it best

So to gaze and lose his heaven.

Mailman - Buland al-Haidari

O mailman,

What is your desire of me?

I am far removed from the world,

Lament to the Spirit of War - Enheduanna

You hack down everything you see, War God!

Rising on fearsome wings

you rush to destroy our land:

raging like thunderstorms,

howling like hurricanes,

screaming like tempests,

thundering, raging, ranting, drumming,

whiplashing whirlwinds!

Love at my door - Anonymous

Love at my door 

Knocked and I gave him bed. 

When sleep saw this 

He took offence and fled. 

‘Give me back sleep; 

Where has he gone?’ I said. 

On Procrastination - Hebat Allah ibn Altalmith

Youth is a drunken, noisy hour,

  With every folly fraught;

But man, by Age's chastening power,

  Is sobered into thought.

The Epic of Gilgamesh (The story of the Flood) - Anonymous

Gilgamesh spoke to Utanapishtim, the Faraway:

"I have been looking at you,

but your appearance is not strange--you are like me!

To the Caliph Haroun al Rashid - Ibrahim ibn Adham

Religion's gems can ne'er adorn

The flimsy robe by pleasure worn;

Its feeble texture soon would tear,

And give those jewels to the air.

Good Morning Lebanon - Majid Al Mohandes

Good morning O Lebanon

Evening of Death O Beirut

Evening of tears in the eyelids

And the injury of our repressed feelings

O Beirut

A Postcard from the Underworld - Sinan Antoon

I have never seen the Sun

It does not rise here

The Epic of Gilgamesh (Prologue) - Anonymous

He who has seen everything, I will make known to the lands.

I will teach about him who experienced all things, alike,

Anu granted him the totality of knowledge of all.

To the Gishbanda Temple of Ningishzida (temple Hymn 15) - Enheduanna

Most ancient and terrible shrine,

set deep in the mountain,

dark like a mother's womb ...

A Poem from the World of Cats - Muthaffar al-Nawab

A dark wind bellowed out destruction

as a sweet street kitty awaited nightfall,

exposing one thigh and covering the rest—

may God protect the kitty and us—with the tail.