A tribute to the artist Marcel Khalife at the New South Wales Parliament by Senator Shaoquett Moselmane 2019
Marcel, you are art, and I am poetry
Take from the houses of poetry
And build our homeland
You are the great, the unique...
You are the beginning
If you walk, time walks behind you
For the (oud), were it not for your sweet,
Melodious playing
Has become a decoration in the corners of places
Play with abandonment...
Make the strings dance...
Who like "Khalifa" can heal our wounds?
All the anthems you sang
Lived within us...
Until we possessed our dream
If the days are unjust, your art is a refuge
If our voice is lost, it remains our voice
I always yearn for my mother's bread
But the tyrant steals our wheat
No, do not fear, sing, for you The Hopeful One
From the mothers of melody comes our bread
I walk, but my stature is not upright
For the body, after abandonment,
Is bent by weariness
Were it not for you,
We would have lost the path to sanctuary
For the path, O "Marcel,"
Has been erased by oblivion
We have abandoned the land like a ship
Look at us, we have filled our sea
Aamchit, O Aamchit, be a note
So that the notes may rejoice since the (Megana)
You gifted us a beloved, pioneering son
Sang so that we may remain...
So that our cedar may remain
Lebanon... what is Lebanon but paradise
If we throw it with fire... our Lord will be angry
Jerusalem is lost... do not ask about our "Kibla"
No leader has been troubled by our Jerusalem
You sang of it...
Oh, if only you had hidden it with melody,
With tunes So that it may remain with us
If only they had weakened my enemy once
So that I might kiss the head of one of our Arabs
But they have covered the horizon with lies
And lies are salt... Ah, our salts!
Rejoice... On Valentine's Day you are honoured
For love with abandonment is one of our customs
This noble, brilliant "Senator"
In the parliament of truth,
He has become our pride
Shaoquett sacrifices... Who sacrifices like him?
The son of the South, the "Moselmane," is our son
I offer you, "Marcel," a world of fragrance
Enter... How magnificent you would be
If you stayed here
You came to us to dispel alienation
Thank you... You have now taken up residence
In our hearts
**
