Fascination

030 - Fascination
by Saleh Badrah

(In Appreciation of Rajaa Alam's Sidi Wahdanah)

It is not sufficient to see and to know the beauty of a work.
We must feel and be affected by it.
~ Voltaire (1694-1778)

Bewitched by the bewitching beauty
Of your esoteric yarn,
With its mystic inspiration,
Here in this dismal zone of aridness
And cultural affectation,
Where egotistic pompousness
Is stuffed with ostentation,
I sat upon your magic rug
And felt my mind transported
To a world of Shahrazadian bliss
(Beyond the fold of boorishness),
A world of fascination.

• Click here for an image version of the poem

Published in the Saudi Gazette, Wednesday, 30 June 1999
Copyright © Saleh Badrah