Nizar Tawfiq Qabbani was a Syrian diplomat, poet and publisher. His poetic style combines simplicity and elegance in exploring themes of love, eroticism, feminism, religion, and Arab nationalism. Qabbani is one of the most revered contemporary poets in the Arab world, and is considered to be Syria's National Poet.
When Qabbani was 15, his sister, who was 25 at the time, committed suicide because she refused to marry a man she did not love. During her funeral he decided to fight the social conditions he saw as causing her death. When asked whether he was a revolutionary, the poet answered: “Love in the Arab world is like a prisoner, and I want to set (it) free. I want to free the Arab soul, sense and body with my poetry. The relationships between men and women in our society are not healthy.” He is known as one of the most feminist and progressive intellectuals of his time.
While a student in college he wrote his first collection of poems entitled The Brunette Told Me. It was a collection of romantic verses that made several startling references to a woman's body, sending shock waves throughout the conservative society in Damascus. To make it more acceptable, Qabbani showed it to Munir al-Ajlani, the minister of education who was also a friend of his father and a leading nationalist leader in Syria. Ajlani liked the poems and endorsed them by writing the preface for Nizar's first book.
The city of Damascus remained a powerful muse in his poetry, most notably in the Jasmine Scent of Damascus. The 1967 Six-Day War also influenced his poetry and his lament for the Arab cause. The defeat marked a qualitative shift in Qabbani's work – from erotic love poems to poems with overt political themes of rejectionism and resistance. For instance, his poem Marginal Notes on the Book of Defeat, a stinging self-criticism of Arab inferiority, drew anger from both the right and left sides of the Arab political dialogue.
ثاني تجربة لي مع نزار قباني رغم عدم حبي للشعر الحر إلا أن هذا العمل كان شيء استثنائي يجعلني ارغب بإعطاء نزار فرص أخرى وأخرى اكثر ماجذبني بالنصوص هو الرقة بالوصف تغنى الشاعر بمدينته كأنه يتغزل بحبيبته التشبيهات الكلمات المستخدمة حتى وهو يذكر دمارها وخرابها يحافظ على رقتها وجاذبيتها بيروت مثل النسمة شيء خفيف يدخل قلبك رغماً عنك تنتقل مشاعر الحب من الكاتب لقلبك بدون مجهود وتلمع بذهنك صورة بيروت مثل ياسمينة أو حمامة . لم أقرأها هنا كمدينة للعيش قرأتها كحلم كأنها اغنية أو قصيدة بيروت هنا ذكريات وافكار اكثر من كونها شيء ملموس شعور الحقد على من باعها شعور الحنين والعار من تركها كلها صور لشيء أعمق بكثير من التصور المادي للمدينة في كل زاوية وركن منها قصة كل حبة رمل معها ذكرى .