Do you know a Road for Loss
That doesn’t end in a Settlement?²
In Jerusalem – the Soldiers march
With heavy Boots over the Clouds³
Amman Tortures me in Jerusalem,
And Baghdad Denies Beirut in my
Name – Damascus Kills me in Cairo⁴
It wasn’t enough they Took the Land, now
They are Conquering my Sky – What’s the
Point Of Wings, when all the Air is Stolen?⁵
My Love takes on the aspect of my Homeland⁶
And they search him: in his Breast just his Heart,
In his Heart just his People, in his Voice just his
Grief, in his Grief just his Cell, and they search
His Cell: only to find Themselves in Chains⁷
Not the Color of our Skin, nor the Seed of
Our Kin, can Dim our little Sinless Lights⁸
Will the Land Succeed – or will the Jets?⁹
I want to Write a Poem about Home –
And Not have to mean Country¹⁰
¹ Palestinian proverb (الارض تعادل الروح)
² Maya Abu Al-Hayyat tr. Fady Joudah, A Road for Loss
³ Tamim Al-Barghouti tr. Houssem Ben Lazreg In Jerusalem
⁴ ‘Abd al-Latif ‘Aql tr. Elmusa & Davies, On the Presence of Absence
⁵ Baraah Qandeel, They Took My Sky Away
⁶ Waleed Sayf tr. Elmusa & John Heath-Stubbs, Death at Night’s End
⁷ Mahmoud Darwish tr. original, Poem of the Land
⁸ Amana Diab, The Forgotten High Life
⁹ Ghassan Zaqtan tr. Fady Joudah, Conversations with My Father
¹⁰ George Abraham, Post-Script: Against Consolidation