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Sunday 20 December 2009

Darwish: I'm From There


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File:SI-Sky.JPG

Sky: photo by Seth Ilys, 2004

 


انا من هناك
محمود دروي

أنا من هناك. ولي ذكرياتٌ . ولدت كما تولد الناس. لي والدة
وبيتٌ كثير النوافذِ. لي إخوةٌ. أصدقاء. وسجنٌ بنافذة باردهْ.
ولي موجةٌ خطَِفتها النوارس. لي مشهدي الخاص. لي عُشْبةٌ زائدهْ
ولي قمرٌ في أقاصي الكلام، ورزقُ الطيور، وزيتونةٌ خالدهْ

مررتُ على الأرض قبل مرور السيوف على جسدٍ حوّلوه إلى مائدهْ.
أنا من هناك. أعيد السماء إلى أمها حين تبكي السماء على أمها،
وأبكي لتعرفني غيمةٌ عائدهْ.
تعلّمتُ كل كلام يليقُ بمحكمة الدم كي أكسر القاعدهْ
تعلّمتُ كل الكلام، وفككته كي أركب مفردةً واحدهْ
هي: الوطنُ...


I'm from
there.
I
have memories. Like


any other
human
I
was born.


I come
from
there. And I go
back


crying
to return the sky
to
its mother,


when
it cries
for
her.

File:MahmoudDarwish.jpg

Mahmoud Darwish at University of Bethlehem: photo by Amer Somali, 2006


4 comments:

aditya said...

Beautiful. Remarkably.

10 years ago, My dad got transferred to a pretty remote field. For 10 months. A long time, as I look back at it. It was then, my parents, seeking amusement maybe, put me in a Madarsa, and learnt Urdu for 2 months. Not that I remember any of it, now.

Warm people they were, over there.

. said...

Indeed beautiful is this Tom. Love the line breaks.

Elmo St. Rose said...

a line from Pound:

"the ragged Arab told him the names
of 3,000 plants"

and on Christmas eve I hope
knowledge of the natural world
in part known by poets
will bring us closer together

Anonymous said...

You're right. This is splendid and from slightly just before my own "This is where we came in" moment. Thank you for including the link.