January 01, 2006

A New Year's Resolution for the world

I am sure some of you have made the usual "loose weight", "quit smoking" resolutions. I confess I break all such resolutions, even though I don't smoke. Anyway, this year, I wish to present to you in the form of a poem, a few suggestions on New Year's Resolutions that I hope atleast some of us would adher to for the rest of the year, and perhaps beyond.

Simple truths

Don't speak words that you cannot compliment with actions.
Don't hide truths that you cannot bring to light with explanations.

Don't do things that you later cannot justify.
Have good intentions and you won't be afraid to testify.

Don't express emotions that your heart denies.
To others and yourself you lie.

Don't make promises you later have to break.
Don't accept more responsibility than you're able to take.

You cannot change what you haven't acknowledged.
Be patient, you never know what might've been if you waited.

19 comments:

moryarti said...

nice poem

happy new year

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

The same to you! :)

BuJ said...

again nice poem.. i'm not a big fan of resolutions.. but i think one should continuously look back at his/her own strengths and build on them and consequently look back at his/her weaknesses and try to elliminate them :)

thumbs up!

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

Resolutions are a relative concept... a new year, birthday or something similar to that are all excellent opportunities to reflect on ones life and time passed as opposed to simply throw a party... some call it tazkiyyat an-nafs, some say resolutions, some would simply say perfecting character... al mohim! to aim for good :)

BuJ said...

Interesting.. and I bet you I'm going to write the date as 2005 for most of January on my letters and work, it confuses the hell out of me, years go so fast these days!

Your Arabic is really good, not bad for a Gringo (said in the most humourous of ways), wouldn't you say Shay-Sha3ira?

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

:) you are too kind, and you would have to be to say that my arabic is really good. I confess it has decayed. I spent 10 months in Damascus at Jamia Dimashq, they have a ma'had lil ajaanib there. The dream is to master arabic someday along with a billion other languages...what´s a girl to do, there's not enough time.
And yeah, years don't exist anymore...just days passing swiftly.

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

Wa anta bikhayr Dave!

Well I suppose it would be hard to tell a native speaker on a blog unless one was one oneself and even then, it would be hard for these days people master languages beyond borders.

In my case I wouldn't know what my native tongue is or mother tongue if we call it that since I have both swedish and urdu and pashto as my so called native tongues.

Yet I ended up speaking english with my dad from day one because it was the "lingua franca" between my parents, and swedish with my mother. Urdu and pashto I was exposed to living in Pakistan for two years. The arabic interest has been a passion of mine for some time...I was 19 when I graduated from highschool and left for Syria with no kowledge of the country or language. Should you ever wish to visit an arab country to testdrive your new found arabic skills, I would recommend Syria (if you haven't already been there).

As for the betterment of oneself it is an ongoing struggle that has been talked about from American transcendentalists to sufi gnostics. Perhaps one way of being aware of ones darks and lights so to speak is with the help of someone who knows you very well in order to point out that which your own self has developed a "blind spot" for. Humans tend to paint themselves in the prettiest of colours :) Good luck with your arabic Dave!

BuJ said...

SS,

I was impressed by your detailed knowledge (e.g. tazkiyyat al-nafs) and such words are not the first thing that a non-Arab speaker would be taught at school :)

Good luck with the Arabic, and keep going!

How long have you been learning Arabic ya sha3ira? (I assume that's your name, as in the Arabic for "poet")

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

It's my pen name. :) been writing poetry since I was 12, and Shakespeare is a huge inspiration and a favourite in many ways, plus we share the same birthday ;)
Like I said, I lived in Damascus for 10 months, and 8 of those I spent at the jamia.
I have read books of authors in the tasawwuf world, Al-Ghazali etc and a common or rather essential ingredient of tasawwuf is tazkiyyat an-nafs.

BuJ said...

Very impressive! I've never been to Damascus or Syria, but I've been to Lebanon and would really like to see Syria. One day I'm sure!

Good luck with the Arabic,, and do keep it up! So will you sing "sana hilwa ya gameel" on April 23rd?

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

Should I sing ya gameel to myself? whatever happened to modesty ;)

Well I prefer Damascus to Beirut anyday. Perhaps I'm a tad bit old fashioned. And by the way, I am expecting some more tutoring... balaash taba'an.

BuJ said...

duh.. you sing to shakespeare and we sing to you :)

which topic would u like your lessons to be about? mind you, my grammar is autrocious, but i might be able to help with cultural topics and dialects :)

I'm so glad you did not learn arabic in egypt.. cannot imagine anything worse than an egyptian accent on a non-arab.. hehe

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

Haader, I'll sing. Al qawaa'id akeed as3ab shi fi'llogha.

ahtaaj al mohadasa wa'l hadees bishakal 3am. al moshkila hiya anni kont atkallam kill yawm fi souriyyeh ma3a jiraani wa azdiqaa'i lakin hon fi'sswaid tab'an ma bahki mithel ma hakait abel.

BuJ said...

ooh, i just wrote a long-ish post about how to use "3" and other sounds when typing Arabic using Latin script!

I hate qawa3ed aw na7oo. El fa3il, el maf3ool bih, el ism, el khabar, el asma2 el khamsa, el madi, el modare3, el amr, ela aakhiri!

Ana 2u7awel an aktib bil 3arabiya al fos7a li sahl el fahm min 6arafik, wa lakinni ajid annahu min al sa3b an asta3mil al fus7a fee jamee3 kalami, fa sa2asta5dim al lahja al Sooriya/Shamiya fil badal.

3ala fikra, ana ajid so3oba fi kitabat al 3aribya bi hathihi al 6ariqa. Min na7iyat al kalam fa inni ujeed al 3arabiya, wa lakin min na7iyat al kitaba fa inni ujeed al lu'3a al in'3liziya (English). Hatha bisabab 6abe3at dirasati wa 3amali al mihani

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

mithel ma biddak, am kama yaqool al falasteeniyeen, zay ma biddak. Na'm...al qawaa'id ma bahebbha abadan.... "al ism yadollo 3la" bla bla bla... I still hear my teacher in my head..bless her.
Haader, word verification m'sakkar. Iza ajid spam mail you are the first person to recieve a forward.

BuJ said...

yislamu eydeki... kullek zoo2... :)

batzakar marra fil madrase fil saff el sadis (grade 6) ustaz el Arabi ahdani ktaab na7o.. oh, boy, did i get teased in class!!

if u turn word verification off you won't get spam in ur inbox (unless you've asked for all the comments to be e-mailed to you). What will happen is that sometimes u get silly posts that ask u to click to go to some silly website to do with distant learning degrees or porn for example. anyway let's hope it doesn't happen, otherwise my neck is on the line here!

Shaykhspeara Sha'ira said...

3aib!

Anonymous said...

Excellent, love it! »

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