15 MARCH 2011

"I sing your love. Rise and fly above. The desert chants your name like a dream. Look up to the sky; it belongs to you. Be the breathing spell for our time and sweep over the Mediterranean.

"You are the imprint of all maps, the evidence of all witnesses; a 'henna' on our fingers. You are the whispers of the sand, the impossible birth, the pride of silent mountains. Glimpses compete on your forehead and tears run on cheeks of those counting your drops of sand.

"Oh, the country that forever strengthened its voice, rising through the times. Oh, our fortress immortal in its place. Here I am seeking you, with all the yearnings of a constant traveler. So when I feel closest to you, I kneel to you. I embrace you. And if destiny wondered whether we'd meet, all of us respond: We will. We'll all be a river of love, vibrant and immortal in the Libyan fields."

*(By Abdel Rahman Shalqam, a poet, who is the Permanent Representative of Libya to the U.N. and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs)