Yesterday I caught up with a Saudi friend who spent the past year living in America. We discussed both of our recent travels and swapped stories of awkward moments and unexpected happiness. He shared with me a poem told to him by a family member before he left Jeddah. As my friend explains it, he tried to emulate Suda’s gift. Following a few other poetry posts at the Casbah, here is the poem, relevant to past and future travelers. I hope it resonates with the gang here and our readers:
When I went to live abroad
Those same loved voices still I heard
It seemed they came along with me
In what country I might be
Yousef would weave a web, made bright
With tales of wonder and delight
But Suda’s gift was greater yet
From each stranger that she met
She could draw forth, such was her art
The inmost secrets of the heart
4 comments:
Wow, what a contribution. Great poem. Keep 'em coming!
I'd love to hear some more stories about Jeddah if possible. Ask your friend next time you see them about their opinion on the destruction of the tomb of Eve. Is it a talked about topic?
What I've heard about Jeddah is that it isn't very conservative. My friend said that it is filled with people who are from some Asian country and are in the the House of Saud to work. Many of these Asian women, so my friend says, don't even cover their heads.
Roost, AG,
I don’t know enough about Jeddah to draw any conclusions about the city. My friend in Jeddah is cut from the liberal cloth of Islam. Nevertheless, he doesn’t typically dive into conversations about religion. I never pressed him on it, as far as I can tell, it is an uncomfortable subject for him.
However, I do have another friend, or more of an acquaintance, from Jeddah. I’ll ask him about then Prince Faisal’s destruction of the Tomb of Eve.
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