Nizar Qabbani quotes
1923 – 1998 · Syria, 20th century · poet, diplomat and publisher
About Nizar Qabbani
Born in Damascus on 21 March 1923 and died in London on 30 April 1998. Qabbani published his first collection in 1944, joined Syria’s diplomatic service in 1945 and resigned in 1966 to focus on writing and publishing in Beirut. Personal tragedies and the Arab political crises shaped a work that moves from erotic lyric to political commitment; he was buried in Damascus by his request.
Works: Qālat lī al-samrāʾ (The Brunette Told Me); Ḥabībatī (My Beloved); Kitāb al-ḥubb (The Book of Love); Qāmūs al-ʿāshiqīn (The Arabian Lover’s Dictionary)
Quotes
“When I stand speechless before your beauty, silence in the sanctuary of beauty is itself beautiful; our words in love kill our love, for letters die when they are spoken.”
Source: Drawing with Words (الرسم بالكلمات) · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The lines appear in online transcriptions of the poem الرسم بالكلمات and are consistently attributed to Nizar Qabbani.
- What remains uncertain
- The supplied wording is a slightly edited prose rendering of the poem’s lines; online reproductions vary and some come from community-submitted pages or anthologies.
Qabbani suggests that some moments are too intense for naming: silence can be the only fitting aesthetic response. Calling beauty a ‘sanctuary’ makes emotion a sacred space where ordinary speech fails. The lines reflect on how naming can diminish what it tries to protect.