Zaid Abdullah Al-Harb ( ar, زيد عبدالله الحرب) (1887 – February 21, 1972) was a
Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
i poet.
Biography
Al-Harb was born in Kuwait in 1887 in the
Sharq area ( ar, منطقة شرق, links=no). He grew up in his grandfather's house, and he worked with his uncles as a sailor then as a ''Nokhitha'' ( ar, نوخذة, links=no). Al-Harb worked in trade and traveled to
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
and the East coast of
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. He participated in the battle of
Al-Jahra
Al Jahra ( ar, الجهراء) is a town and city located west of the centre of Kuwait City in Kuwait. Al Jahra is the capital of the Al Jahra Governorate of Kuwait as well as the surrounding Al Jahra District which is agriculturally based. Encyc ...
( ar, معركة الجهراء, links=no) in 1920, defending Kuwait. In 1952, Zaid lost his eyesight.
His works
He discussed the social and political life in Kuwait and the
Arab world
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western A ...
. In his poems he had described the struggle and the tough life of Kuwaiti
divers
Diver or divers may refer to:
*Diving (sport), the sport of performing acrobatics while jumping or falling into water
*Practitioner of underwater diving, including:
**scuba diving,
**freediving,
**surface-supplied diving,
**saturation diving, a ...
who were diving for pearls as the main source of their income before producing the
oil in Kuwait.
و القيض كله نجالب الغوص بحبال *** ماي جما الزرنيخ و زاده نهيبه
و الغيص يشكي الضيم من بحر الاهوال *** و السيب واقف دوم مثل النصيبه
و يركض على المجداف لي صاح (يا مال) *** و نوم الملا بالليل ما نهتني به
و رحنا السفر و الموج يا جنه جبال *** في غبة فيها المنايا قريبة
لا حولنا ديرة و لا حولنا يال *** و لا من ذرا بالضيق نبنلتجي به
إلا سواد الليل من دونهم حال *** و بحر كسيف دوم تطبخ غبيبة
All the summer we struggle diving with ropes ** The water is like hell
The diver is complaining about the terrifying sea ** And the rope man is always standing like a wall
And he runs to the oar as he yell (Ya mal) ** And we don't know how is the sleep at night
We went to travel, and the billows are like mountains ** In the darkness the death is very close
No country around us, neither a coast ** And no one we could run to
Except the darkness of night that falls on them ** And an unknown dark sea
References
* Al-Harb, G.(1977) Kuwait: That AlSalasel.
* Zaid Al-Harb (AL-Watan, January 31, 2007)
Cultural beacons Kuwait Culture site. 2004.
* Dr.
Hessa S. Z. Al-RifaiZaid Al-Harb and Touching the Nations Strings Journal of the Gulf and
Arabic Peninsula
The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...
Studies. .
20th-century Kuwaiti poets
1971 deaths
1887 births
19th-century Kuwaiti poets
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