What they said about Arabic Via a reliable witness
“I encompassed the Book of God in word and purpose, and was not too narrow for its verses and admonitions; how then should I be too narrow today to describe a machine or to arrange names for inventions? I am the sea, in whose depths pearls lie hidden; did they ask the diver about my shells?”
Hafiz Ibrahim
d. 1351 AH / 1932 CE
Egyptian poet, called 'the Poet of the Nile'
The Arabic original
وَسِعْتُ كِتابَ اللَّهِ لَفْظاً وَغايَةً ... وَما ضِقْتُ عَنْ آيٍ بِهِ وَعِظاتِ
فَكَيْفَ أَضِيقُ اليَوْمَ عَنْ وَصْفِ آلَةٍ ... وَتَنْسِيقِ أَسْمَاءٍ لِمُخْتَرَعَاتِ
أَنَا البَحْرُ فِي أَحْشَائِهِ الدُّرُّ كامِنٌ ... فَهَلْ سَأَلُوا الغَوَّاصَ عَنْ صَدَفَاتِي
Source
Hafiz Ibrahim, 'The Arabic language laments its lot among its people' (1903), Diwan, ed. Ahmad Amin, Ahmad al-Zayn and Ibrahim al-Ibyari, vol. 1, pp. 253-254; quoted in Majallat al-Muqtabas vol. 17, p. 45
The English translation is Voice of Arabic's, made from the original.
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