Maryam - Mary

Maryam

Ya Maryam, ya damxa ḣaṫṫ xlaya Rruḣ l muḣiiṫ
Simxit l Kilme w iblita, ḣayeete inte
Hwiit, seemḣiine ma bifham illa bil xawiiṫ
Law ṫaal dahre kint yawm fniit, waḣdik la tifne

Ya aḣla warde xa madḱal kill li byut
Mṡaddara wi mkarrame, xanna la tnaḣḣe
Xyunik w xawnik w Ibnik l Xalii, zaytna wil ut
Minnik ya mbaarake, w xa Bayyna liḣḣe

Ya Imm meetit xindil Jiljle, ma ba`a tmut
Bil majd mkallale, eemit Malkitna faw` jnud
Tincur bi ṡaḣra aṡiidit ceexir l wujud

Killo ṡada, weeḣit ḱulud, txalla` xal xud
Bayn l arḋ wi ssama, eem w ṫilix w baxd bixud
La xindik w xindo Maryam ḱallina nfut


Copyright July 28, 2009 Hicham Khalil Bourjaili
Our Lady of Lebanon, Waterbury, Connecticut, USA



English Version

Mary

O Mary, O tear (1) on which the encompassing (2) Spirit (3) rested
You heard the Word (3) and accepted it, my beloved
I fell (4), forgive me I do not understand but when shouted upon
Whatever time my life could have lasted a day I would have died, you alone do not perish (5)

O most beautiful rose at the entrance of all homes
Presiding and blessed, do not turn from us
Your eyes and your help and your Most High Son, our oil and bread
Come from you o blessed, insist on Our Father (3)

O Mother who died on Golgotha (6), who does not die anymore (7)
Crowned with glory, Our Queen (7) rose above an army
Preaching in the desert the poem of the author (8) of being

All echo and thirst (9), an oasis of eternity, suspended on the cross (10)
Between heaven and earth, who rose and ascended to heaven and will come again (11)
O Mary to his and your house let us enter


Notes:

1) The name Mary, Maryam in Lebanese, means a drop of the Ocean, therefore like a tear.

2) The word for encompassing used in the poem is the word muḣiiṫ which also means Ocean.

3) The Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, refers to the One and Only God in three persons as defined in the Nicene Creed with reference to the tradition and the Gospels.

4) The verb hiwe in Lebanese means exactly to fall. It refers to falling and falling in love alike. The first meaning hints to the confession of a sinner who fell into sinning and the second meaning points to a confession of love for Mary made by the sinner.

5) The expression “la tifne” in Lebanese could have two meanings: the first is “not to perish” an expression of hope and a supplication addressed to Mary; the second hints to the transitive use of the verb with a supposed pronoun referring to the sinner or sinners though not expressed explicitly and means “Mary do not make me perish” or “Mary do not make us perish”.

6) Golgotha is the place of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The death of Mary on the Golgotha refers to the suffering of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross watching the tortures and the death of her son, fulfilling the prophecy of Simeon as recorded in the Gospel of the Evangelist Luke, “a sword will pierce your heart”.

7) On August 15 of each year the Church celebrates the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a feast also called the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Mary entered Heaven in body and soul and was crowned as Queen of Heaven and Earth, and all the Saints.

8) The word ceexir in Lebanese refers to the poet and the poet is the one who does things as revealed by the Greek root of the word. The author of being is literally the poet of being. “I Am Who Am” is the name of God as revealed in Exodus to Moses.

9) The word ṡada means both echo and thirst. Jesus Christ said on the cross “I am thisty” and He is the Son of the Father as stated in the Gospels, the Church Councils and Tradition.

10) The word xud in Lebanese refer to the beams of wood and also to the luth. Jesus Christ was crucified on the wood of the cross. As a metaphor, God played the most beautiful melody on the cross. Also, an Arabic tradition holds that poems in the pre-islamic era where hanged in the market place of Xukaaż in the Arab Peninsula to be read. Jesus Christ is the Word par excellence, hanged on the cross. As a metaphor, He is the greatest poem to have ever been written and displayed for our reading.

11) The verse make clear reference to the death, Resurrection, Ascension of Jesus Christ and his expected return to judge the living and the dead as stated in the Nicene Creed.


Copyright August 1, 2009 Hicham Khalil Bourjaili
Our Lady of Lebanon, Waterbury, Connecticut, USA