Here’s famed Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s latest poem (in arabic). It’s a moving and stinging indictment of Hamas and Palestinian society as a whole really. I’ve posted bits and pieces of the English translation here:
Did we have to fall from a tremendous height so as to see our blood on our hands…to realize that we are no angels…as we thought?
Did we also have to expose our flaws before the world so that our truth would no longer stay virgin?
How much we lied when we said: we are the exception!
To believe oneself is worse than to lie to the other!
To be friendly with those who hate us and harsh on those who love us — that is the lowness of the arrogant and the arrogance of the low!
He masked himself and pulled up his courage and killed his mother…because she was the easiest of prey…and because a female soldier stopped him and exposed her bosoms to him saying: Does your mother have ones like these?
Had it not been for shame and darkness, I would have visited Gaza without knowing the way to the home of the new Abu Sufian or the name of the new prophet!
Had Muhammad not been the last of the prophets, every gang would have had a prophet and every apostle had a militia!
June astonished us in its fortieth anniversary: if we do not find someone to defeat us again, we defeat ourselves with our hands so as not to forget!
“The stranger and I are against my cousin. My cousin and I are against my brother…and my sheik and I are against myself.” This is the first lesson in the new national education in the dungeons of darkness.
Who enters paradise first? The one who died by the bullets of the enemy or the one who died by the bullets of the brother?
Some theologians say: Many an enemy of yours that your mother gave birth to!
He asked me: does a hungry guard defend a house whose owner traveled to spend his summer vacation at the French or the Italian Riviera…no difference?
I said: he does not defend!
7 responses so far ↓
1 Abdulhadi Ayyad // Jun 19, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I have actually translated this poem in its entirety… do be in touch if you would like to exchange notes.
2 Mimi // Jun 19, 2007 at 6:32 pm
Abdulhadi, I would like the full translation please and will credit you as translator.
3 diana // Jun 19, 2007 at 10:18 pm
As they say, much may be lost in the translation, but this strikes me as political commentary, not poetry.
“Did we have to fall from a tremendous height so as to see our blood on our hands…to realize that we are no angels…as we thought?”
Can the Arabs ever get over whining about the great & glorious past? Have they produced a notable scientist in the last 50 years?
Sheesh!
4 FurGaia // Jun 20, 2007 at 2:50 am
A critique.
5 Arab // Jun 20, 2007 at 3:55 am
Fuck you, Diana.
6 diana // Jun 20, 2007 at 1:39 pm
Thanks for sharing, “Arab.”
The more I observe of the Middle East, the more I become an American isolationist.
7 American Not Like Diana // Jun 26, 2007 at 10:20 pm
I am an American unlike our sister Diana. Unfortunately, this bewilderment about the concerns of people who suffer in a time when prosperity and opportunity flourishes everywhere around them is proof positive simply to the disease of complacency that plagues our land and a laziness to move to greater understanding. This is not a cry for help from the “Arabs”. This is an awakening. We stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters of Palestine. We pray for hope and understanding that only through God we can lift the veil of ignorance that befallen upon the eyes and minds of kin folk like our sister Diana. As a product of American history of a struggle, this same “isolationist” language of Diana is the same language of the racist masses from the 1960s South. Yet, it was through love of our enemy that we rose out of that dark age. Sister Diana reminds us of this continued struggle we all must face. Please join us Americans, Diana, who stand with the Palestinians in this great awakening. Release yourself from your simplicity. A negative response only proves your unfortunate condition.
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