Celia Kurdab Hamadeh holds a bachelor degree in Public Administration from the American university of Beirut( AUB). She is a Lebanese poet, author, political commentator and human and women rights activist . She held many posts in advertising, marketing and PR in addition to her early years as a translator at the British embassy in Riyadh during her long residence there. She was the recipient of the Dar al Sayad publishers,” Saed Fraiha prize” for her poem “Ma Serruki Beirut ( Beirut whats your secret) ”in 2008. She published two books of poetry in Arabic Imraat kullousour ( a woman of all times) and Rasael ila Adam( letters to Adam). She participated in many poetry festivals in Lebanon and other cultural events in Dubai during her residence there in the past few years. Her poetry is widely covered by media and reviewed by renowned Arab critics and a number of her poems translated to Italian and Spanish , and published in related websites and publications, in addition to her own translations of her poems to English.
Excerpts from “ a woman of all times” and “ letters to Adam”
By Author poet : Celia Kurdab Hamadeh”
- A Woman Of All Times
I am
A woman of all times
Only in your imagination,
You can live the delusion
Of living without the hurricanes of
my rebellious mind
And mad love
Only in your imagination, you think
that you have the choice
- “ I Draw Femininity “
I draw the boundaries of passion and love
I reshape femininity shed,
in the courts of Sultans,
and shed by the minds of thinkers in
coffee shops of boredom
I liberate the color of your eyes
From the delusion of images and stereotypes
I scribble on the wall of Time
That you were mine
Since thousands of Times
- “The Void “
Darkness is not darkness
but the absence of light
Silence is not the absence of words or speech
but space between words and words,
Void between silence and silence
In the void
we can see
beyond the fog of words
and we meet as
two parallel lines
as two unique tunes
In the void
we cross, in astonished silence,
the crossing of light years of two unique orbits
I will be filled by you
You will be filled by me
And we fall outside the boundaries of
the gravity of words and speech
And we burn ..
We burn at the deepest end of
the stillness of love!
And from light ,
To Light, we return !
- “The birds and I “
The birds told me their secrets
And flew away
Towards Another Day!
They whispered to my heart
before they flew away:
we sing for love in the universe
we sing equally to those who can hear or can’t hear
The birds told me their secrets
and flew away to another day
- The difficult country
How hard it is to have a country
which lives inside you, while it is difficult
for you to live in it !
A country which you belong to when far away
A stranger you remain when you are near
Childhood places have changed
The color of trees has changed
The color of the sea has changed
The color of the sky has changed
Colors have been distorted and abused
Colors became competition, hatred and draught
Don’t you dare ask about the purity of air
Fill your mouth with a daily bread bite
sip a drop of water
Seal your ears
Close your eyes
And wait for justice form heavens
… and They tell you;
your country is not a hotel !
But they never realize
How difficult it is to feel
That your country is not Home
( an excerpt from my poem : “the difficult country”,
living abroad for many years makes settling back in your country very hard . Moreover, in Lebanon, each political party monopolized a color for its flag and PR, coloring people accordingly)
- Are you a reality
Are you a reality ?
Or have I just made you from the boredom
Of my days and nights
Are you for real?
Or have I just created you
And colored you with my imagination !
Are you for real?
Or it was me who painted you with
The fingers of my pen and left
the door wide open for my thoughts
have I just lost you between my papers
or have I just hidden you for
another time or another dimension
By : Celia K. Hamadeh
