Our First and Last Meeting: In Memory of Dr. Abdulaziz Al Saqqaf [Archives:2000/23/Focus]
A Poem by
Dr. Mohammed Sharafuddin
When I first met you in school,
I said: Here is someone to know.
You were young, a talented lad,
With stature high and strong,
And aspirations burning like Sana’a’s summer morn.
You did things that were beyond
Others’ reach or scope:
Your looks and talks, straight and unhesitating,
Impressive to us all, though hard to take.
But you did gain respect:
The skills and visions you had voiced
Run far beyond the walls and mountains of our little home.
Then we met at work,
As media messengers, transforming and interpreting
What we innocently thought was true,
Serving good causes.
We often spoke of some bright days to come,
As we impart life
To all those values that gave us food for love and peace,
Promising an end
To all the splits and disintegrates.
And so you went, avowing this note on and on,
With vigor and endless fervor.
And apart from your rather different way,
This dream of yours became our communal wish,
As we, often shivering to see it fall,
Gave in our last but final chance.
Then I was to see you at last
In your little growing fortress
You said you built it stone by stone,
With your very untiring hands.
I wondered how much you have fulfilled,
Though more was still to come,
Or so we hoped.
True you have left,
But all who knew you felt,
Somewhat a strange mistiming,
Surprising us all,
For hence that sense of loss which betook us all,
As if something was destined to stay
Till some immortal day
That brings its fruit.
You left but also left us a space
That each should seek to fulfill,
If real delivery is ever to be hoped.
At least one needs to see in you
Some cause to emulate:
For you, who was alone to jump to meet his death,
And ever prepared in words and deeds.
It all now explains itself,
As I remember how you snatched from me those words
I brought you once.
It took you only a moment’s gaze,
Strangely praising them in your uncompromising voice,
For reasons I now seem content to know.
But you took these words to proclaim loud and strong:
He who seeks refuge in fears,
The earth behind disappears,
Civilization and Time cease.
Whoever runs in fears,
He has no warmth nor peace;
As he stalks,
The road behind him writes:
“Here goes the Scared!”He who seeks shelter in the Sword,
The beast flees,
So do bullets and man:
To him History bows and the place.
(With courtesy to Dr. Abdulaziz Al Magaleh)
——
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