November Poem of the Month: In the Season of Roses

EACH MONTH, The Leaves Review takes a closer look at a poem, exploring its language, imagery and the feelings it leaves behind.

Our selection for November is Omar Abu Risha’s «في موسم الورد» (In the Season of Roses), a poem that begins with an unexpected meeting among roses and ends with the solitude of remembering. Through its movement from tenderness to disappointment, it explores how a brief encounter can outlive a relationship in memory, and how the places where we once felt happy can become painful reminders of someone’s absence—much as a wandering scent can pass through us uninvited, transporting us back to another place and time.

The Poem

«كأنّي بالمرأة تحبّ من أذنها لا من عينها…»

هُنا! في موسمِ الوردِ ✦ تلاقينا بلا وعدِ
وسرنا في جلالِ الصمتِ ✦ فوقَ مناكبِ الخلدِ
وفي ألحاظنا جوعٌ ✦ على الحرمانِ يستجدي!
وأهوى جيدُكِ الريّانُ ✦ متّكئاً على زندي
وشَعرُكِ مائجٌ، والطيبُ ✦ يفضحُ فجوةَ النهدِ
كأنّا غفوةٌ خرساءُ ✦ بينَ الخدِّ والخدِّ!

* * *

مُنى قلبي، أرى قلبَكِ ✦ لا يبقى على عهدِ
أُسائلُ عنكِ أحلامي ✦ وأُسكتُها عن الردِّ
أردتِ، فنلتِ، ما أمّلتِ ✦ من عزّي ومن مجدي
فأنتِ اليومَ ألحاني ✦ وألحانُ الدُّنا بعدي!
فما أقصرهُ حبّاً ✦ تلاشى وهو في المهدِ!
فهذا الوردُ ما ينفكُّ ✦ فوقَ غصونهِ المُلْدِ
ولم أبرحْ، هُنا، في ظلِّ ✦ هذا الملتقى، وحدي!

— عمر أبو ريشة (١٩٤٦)

English Translation

(“It is as though a woman loves through her ear, not through her eye…”)

Here! In the season of roses, ✦ we met without an appointment,
and walked in the solemn grandeur of silence ✦ upon the shoulders of eternity.
In our glances lay a hunger ✦ pleading against deprivation;
your graceful neck leaned down, ✦ resting against my arm,
your hair billowing, while perfume ✦ betrayed the hollow of your breast—
as though we were a silent slumber ✦ suspended between cheek and cheek.

* * *

Desire of my heart, I see your heart ✦ cannot remain faithful to a pledge.
I question my dreams about you, ✦ and silence them before they answer.
You wished, and took all you hoped for ✦ of my honour and my glory—
so today you are my melodies, ✦ and the melodies of the world after me.
How brief a love, ✦ which vanished while still in its cradle!
For these roses never cease to bloom ✦ upon their supple branches,
while I have not left—still here, in the shade ✦ of this meeting place, alone.

Reading & Commentary

The poem moves from the apparent timelessness of a romantic encounter to the loneliness of remembering it after the relationship has ended. Its central tension is that a moment can feel eternal while it is happening, yet prove painfully brief.

The opening establishes an unexpected meeting:

هُنا في موسمِ الوردِ ✦ تلاقينا بلا وعدِ
“Here, in the season of roses, we met without an appointment.”

The roses give the encounter an atmosphere of freshness, beauty and possibility. “بلا وعد” first means that they had not arranged to meet. Read alongside the later accusation that her heart cannot keep a pledge, however, it also acquires a possible second resonance: their love begins without an appointment and ends without a lasting commitment.

He then describes them walking:

وسرنا في جلالِ الصمتِ ✦ فوقَ مناكبِ الخلدِ

The silence possesses “جلال”, a solemn grandeur. They do not need conversation because their physical presence seems sufficient. “فوق مناكب الخلد”, literally “upon the shoulders of eternity”, elevates an ordinary walk into something beyond passing time. This is how the encounter feels to the speaker; the ending will expose the distance between that feeling and what actually lasts.

The first part then becomes distinctly sensual. Their eyes reveal an emotional and physical hunger, her neck rests against his arm, and her hair and perfume bring the beloved into close bodily presence. When he describes them as a silent doze between cheek and cheek, the effect is one of suspended awareness: for a moment, the outside world seems to disappear. The intimacy is communicated through touch, scent and stillness.

The second part breaks that atmosphere. He addresses her as his heart’s desire, but accuses her heart of failing to remain faithful. His attempt to question his own dreams, followed by silencing their answer, suggests that he wants an explanation while also fearing what acknowledging it would mean. The memory that once offered happiness now makes him confront its loss.

His language also becomes wounded and reproachful. He presents himself as having given her what she wanted from his honour and glory. We should distinguish his accusation from an objective account of the relationship: the poem gives us his hurt, but it does not give us her voice or establish her motives.

The sharpest reversal comes here:

فما أقصرهُ حبّاً ✦ تلاشى وهو في المهدِ!
“How brief a love, which vanished while still in its cradle!”

Earlier, the lovers seemed to walk upon eternity. Now their love has scarcely survived infancy. The cradle makes its disappearance feel premature: he mourns both the intimacy they shared and the future that never developed.

The ending returns to the roses and the original meeting place. The roses continue blooming, while he remains alone beneath their branches. Nature’s renewal cannot restore the relationship.

The movement from “تلاقينا”, “we met”, to “وحدي”, “alone”, contains the whole emotional journey. The place remains, the season returns, and the flowers endure. What has disappeared is the shared presence that once made all of them feel eternal.

Chosen at the suggestion of a dear friend, Daleen.