The collection "Songs of the Dervish" reflects the soul of the poet Rashid Ayoub during a mature stage of his life, where feelings of sadness and joy, despair and hope, nostalgia and alienation intersect. Ayoub wrote his poems as a fifty-year-old migrant dervish, carrying within him a longing for homeland, love, and life. He stands tall among the poets of the Pen League, who were united by poetry and separated by exile. In the poems of this collection, we hear the echo of his complaint about the passing of youth and the burden of alienation, matched by his insistence on clinging to his lost dreams, even if it means traveling the seas of poetry and love. The text oscillates between deep sorrow and fleeting joy, between satire of time and gratitude for love, the flute, and poetry that grant the soul immortality and beauty. It is a collection that combines the sincerity of experience with the power of expression, reflecting the personality of a poet of Sufi nature, an immigrant of conscience, who sings songs that remain relevant to the conscience of the contemporary reader.

رشيد أيوب (1872–1941م) شاعر لبناني من شعراء المهجر. عُرف بلقب «الشاعر الشاكي» لكثرة ما حمل شعره من حزن واغتراب. كتب في الغزل والوطنيات والحنين إلى الوطن. وكان أحد أعضاء الرابطة القلمية في نيويورك.