Hafez and Shawqi

In less than three months, Egypt lost its speaking tongues, and the Arab East lost its two great poets, Hafez and Shawqi, as if the judiciary wanted to give the Prince of Poets two months and some one month. To eulogize Hafez, and do justice to him after his death, just as Hafez praised and commended him, and declared his leadership of poetry during his life! When my longing for the right to loyalty, fairness, and justice was fulfilled, God granted it to its owner in a place where there was no competition or boasting, and where there was no malice, hatred, or conceit. Shawqi had hoped - as he said - that Hafez would eulogize him, and if Hafez had come later than Shawqi, he would have said that he was hoping that he would be the first and that Shawqi would eulogize him. God''s command is effective, and God''s word is supreme. He wanted Hafez to die, for Shawqi to follow him after two months and a month, for modern Arabic literature to lose its scholarship, language, and poetry, and for Egypt to mourn its two dear sons without finding in one of them a successor who lost its owner. Taha Hussien