Sana’a is a jewel on the crown of the Arab world [Archives:2004/753/Last Page]

By Tahani Abdul-qawi Ahmed al-Aghbary
For the Yemen Times
Sana'a? I am not here to enumerate her qualities because they are too many to be enumerated, she is too beautiful to be praised, and she is too famous to be introduced. I am here to declare my recognition. I am mad about her to the extent that zeal is found. It is the past with her beauty, the present with her modernity, and the future with her dreams.
She is a part from every thing lofty. She is high like the sun, tall like the trees, pure like the sea, and wise like prophets. She is like a bride descending from the sky wearing her best dress and her radiant eyes made tinted with eyeliner. She will never age nor will wrinkles appear on her face. She stretches out her hands to hug all her people and hold them to her heart. She sprays perfumes all over her body to be more attractive. I am still able to smell that special fragrance.
Sana'a is the rose which every one wants to pluck; Turks came to her from the west and the English but they couldn't even touch her and she remain virtuous, frolicking in the valleys of its mountains.
Sana'a my mother! In her lap was the first day of my life. In her lap were my first words, my first tears, my first laughs, and my first steps. She was and still is fond of giving birth, and fond of nursing. She is the song of nature, the wisdom of ages. She is hope in the midst of despair, and light in the midst of the dark.
Every day she receives the sun happily, plays with all the seasons, and at night, she burns her dreams to light our life. She loves every beautiful thing, and she is beautiful. She likes to laugh, but what is her laugh? Is it the music of the leaves on the trees? Is it the music of the roots moving under the ground? Or is it the music of the old ages?
She also likes to cry, and her tears are clear water descended from the sky to water the entire world. She never feels frightened: do you know why? Because she knows god, she prays to God, and she loves God. I can hear the voice of the muezzin calling her to prayer; telling her not to be afraid; she is in God's mercy.
She is Sana'a with her buildings, which look like henna on a bride's hand, are impossible to be found anywhere else.
She told me once “I am the first place, the first memory, the first love, and the first words. Do you forget my stones and the hot sand on which you're barefoot took your first step? Come near me; I want to see your face. Oh I love your silence now after you talked a lot in the dirty places of the world.”
Sana'a with her seven doors as heaven with the seven doors