People in #Beirut are volunteering to clean debris from the streets after the explosion: “We don’t have a state to take these steps.”

Countless livelihoods, homes are destroyed.

Many see the blast as the last straw to government corruption: “We have gone backwards 100 years.” pic.twitter.com/Gv5U767UTS

— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 6, 2020

Read: My Heart Cries for Beirut Today.

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Words fail me
as I watch my beloved city fall to the ground
as I hear its people bellow in the streets
as I watch it bleed and wither before my eyes

Words fail me
as I helplessly watch my people stagger wounded and bloody through dust and rubble
as I see its once beautiful streets and houses turned into ruins

Words fail me
as the explosion echoes in my heart as it echoes in Beirut, breaking it into thousands of pieces—shattering it, scattering it all over the place, just as the glass shattered in every house, just as the windows and doors got ripped away

Words fail me
as the explosion bursts through my being as it was bursting through Beirut
as it was destroying it, ripping it apart, and leaving it to die

Words fail me
as I die with the dead
as I bleed with the wounded
as I worry with those who lost loved ones

Words fail me
as I cry with the sad
as I agonize with the people
as I lose my home, my beloved city, my Beirut

Words fail me
as I realize what great tragedy had befallen us
what great damage is ahead of us
what great loss is devouring us

Words fail me as tears fill up my eyes,
as fear smothers my breath and as excruciating pain breaks my heart

Words fail me as I plead you with tears of blood
with broken hearts, with broken homes, with the screams of every Lebanese person
Beirut, rise like a Phoenix from the ashes
rise for all those who love you
rise for the love of God
Rise
Rise.

~

يا بيروت … قومي من تحت الردمِ !!
لا يوجدُ قبلكِ شيءٌ.. بعدكِ شيءٌ.. مثلكِ شيءٌ.
قومي كي يبقى العالمُ يا بيروتْ…

A rough translation of the famous song by Nizar Qabbani:

“Oh Beirut Rise from under the ashes
There’s nothing before you…nothing after you…nothing like you
Rise for the world to remain.”

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