Language

When a man is in love



how can he use old words?



Should a woman



desiring her lover



lie down with



grammarians and linguists?



***



I said nothing



to the woman I loved



but gathered



love's adjectives into a suitcase



and fled from all languages.

Had I told the sea

In the summer
I stretch out on the shore
And think of you
Had I told the sea
What I felt for you,
It would have left its shores,
Its shells,
Its fish,
And followed me.

Nizar Qabbani, In the Summer