Page 23 - FP Chronicle 14th Issue, January 2020

My Favorite Arabic Poem

Translated from Arabic by Amal Isaa Said Hassan Al Amri/FP

If one day a people desire to live then fate will answer their call

And their night will then begin to fade and their chains break and fall

For he who is not embraced by a passion for life will dissipate into thin air.

I chose this poem because its purpose is to promote freedom and liberation from
injustice. It calls upon people to have hope and faith.

Abu al-Qassim al-Shabi is a Tunisian poet. He was born on 24th February 1909.
He is probably best known for writing the final two verses of the current National

Anthem of Tunisia. The most popular poems he wrote are “To the tyrants of the

world” and “The will to live”. He died on 9 October 1934.

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FP Chronicle Issue 14, Jan 2020