The night must clear, and the chain must break.
Quote
The night must clear, and the chain must break.
Arabic original
ولا بد لليل أن ينجلي، ولا بد للقيد أن ينكسر.
What it means
Night stands for hardship and the chain for oppression. Their disappearance expresses hope for freedom through human determination, continuing the opening verse’s faith in collective will.
The story behind this quote
This is the second verse of The Will to Live. Al-Shabbi places it immediately after the declaration of the people’s will in the face of fate.
Two things preventing free life are declared temporary. One belongs to the landscape, the other to constraint imposed on people. Bringing them together joins a bright horizon with concrete liberation. The reader understands that promise within the collective movement announced at the poem’s beginning.
The source
إرادة الحياة, البيت الثاني من القصيدة, 1933
The text appears in the indicated source. A traditional attribution remains distinct from proof of authorship: see the context.
More quotes by Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi
You were created unbound as a passing breeze, and free as morning light in its sky.
If, one day, the people will to live, then fate must answer.
Author
Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi
Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi, a Tunisian poet who died at twenty-five, wrote the Songs of Life, published after his death. His poem “The Will to Live” became an anthem of freedom across the Arab world.
Quotes by Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi