Flore

This piece is an English adaptation of a poem from my Arabic diary (2005),
developed with the assistance of AI. The original verse is included below.

Damascus —

Flore—
a flower born in France’s plains,
she speaks to me through seas and rains,
past countless isles and distant shores,
through harbors, tides, and open doors.
Her eyes are green with dreaming sight,
of justice framed in living light,
of freedom born at life’s first breath,
and carried on beyond all death.

She loves this life with open core,
and casts out death—will name it no more.
She knows no flags, no borderlines,
no ceiling placed on a woman’s climb.

Flore—
a French-lit star in midnight skies,
her heart where far horizons rise,
it stretches past all names and creeds,
past nations, myths, and stamped-out needs.
She hates the lies of politics,
the sacred texts, their practiced tricks.
An atheist girl from France she stands,
who taught my soul what revolt demands.

Flore—
a friend I’ve never met in skin,
yet how I ache to one day begin—
to touch her hands, unclaimed, unbound,
from Vatican walls, from empire’s ground,
from France’s generals, old and grim,
who’d cage the world and call it “him.”

A springtime friend in shades of green,
ally to freedom’s flowering scene.
A girl I’ve never met face to face,
yet across the seas, across all space,
she lives within me—clear, alone—
my softest song,
my sweetest tone.

---

فلورْ ..
زهرةٌ مِنْ سُهولِ فَرنسا ،
تُكلّمني عبرَ المحيطاتِ ..
مِنْ خلفِ ألفِ جزيرةٍ و مرسى
عَيناها حلمٌ أخضرٌ .. عن عالمٍ عادلٍ
و حرّيةٍ مِنَ المَهدِ إلى الأَقصى
فتاةٌ تَعشقُ الحياةَ ،
و الموتُ مِنْ قاموسها أُقصى
لا تعرفُ حدودَ دولٍ ..
و لا حدوداً لطموحِ أُنثى

فلورْ ..
نجمةٌ في السّماءِ فرنسيّةْ
قَلبُها يمتدُّ على أرضٍ بعيدةٍ
يتجاوزُ كلَّ أُمّةٍ، كلَّ هويّةْ
تكرهُ كَذِبّ السّياسةِ
و كذبَ الكُتُبِ السَّماويّةْ
فتاةٌ مُلحِدةٌ مِنْ فرنسا
علّمتني معنى الثَّوريّةْ

فلورْ ..
صديقةٌ بعدُ لمْ ألقاها
و كم أريدُ أن أحظى بفرصةْ
لألمسَ يداها .. الحرّتانِ مِنَ الفاتيكان
الحرّتانِ مِنْ غورو فرنسا

صديقةٌ خضراءُ ربيعيّةْ
صديقةٌ لأزهارِ الحريّةْ
فتاةٌ بعدُ لمْ ألقاها
لكنّها عبرَ المحيطاتِ عندي
أعذبُ سيمفونيّةْ