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# Since You’re Dead
- URL: https://www.malektakieddine.com/since-youre-dead/
- Published: 2026-11-02T21:30:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-02T21:30:51.000Z
- Description: The births of my grandfather, my father and me, some thirty years apart in the last century, were each celebrated and recorded in poetry.
- Author: Malek Takieddine
- Tags: #literary-fiction

The births of my grandfather, my father and me, some thirty years apart in the last century, were each celebrated and recorded in poetry.

I come from a Lebanese Druze family in which creativity was as abundant as social connections, and poetry as essential as olive oil and flatbread.

My grandfather’s uncle, Ahmad Takieddine (1888–1935), was a renowned Lebanese poet and judge. He was only twenty-five years older than my grandfather. In a verse celebrating the newborn, he encrypted my grandfather’s year of birth. The eloquence and layered meanings of Ahmad’s birth verses are difficult to carry into English. Here is an approximate rendering of some of them:

*In the sky of piety and gentleness a star has risen,* 
*clothed in the radiance of the shining lights.* 
*\[…\]* 
*From his father he inherits the fragrance of flowers on the hills,* 
*from his mother the grace of gazelles and gentleness.*

[Read the full essay on Substack.](https://malektakieddine.substack.com/p/since-youre-dead)