Kurz vor dreißig... küss mich

Widad Nabi's lyrics tell of insatiable longing, of loss, of pleasure and pain, of the search for human closeness. They usually sing about a moment of nostalgia, tenderness and love. Her poems, which are poetically closely intertwined with the events of recent years in Syria, correspond to the attitude towards life of many people who are fleeing. The feeling of alienation in her poetry is a metaphor for modern man's uprooting and homelessness. Exile has become the fate of many Syrians, but often also their salvation. "Exile saved me from annihilation,” she once said.

The poems were translated from Arabic by Suleman Taufiq.