Silence for Gaza
By the Palestinian poet: Mahmoud Darwish
Translated by: Adib S. Kawar
With dynamite she raps her waist
She explodes
It is neither death nor suicide
Its Gaza's style to announce her worthiness of life
For four years and Gaza's flesh burst around bomb's shrapnel
Neither magic nor miracle
It is Gaza's weapons and arms for her continued existence
And the enemy's detritions it is
For four years the enemy with its dreams rejoicing it had been
For flirting with time it was fascinated
Except for in Gaza
For Gaza far away it is from her relatives
And with the enemy it is stuck
For Gaza is a bomb
When ever it explodes
Never she stops from exploding
The enemy's face she scared
And from satisfaction with time she repelled them
Another thing is time in Gaza
For time in Gaza not a neutral factor it is
The people it doesn't drive to cold contemplation
But to the freedom of explosion
And to collusion with truth
Time there children it doesn't take
from babyhood to old age
But men it makes of them
With their first confrontation with the enemy
In Gaza time is not relaxation
But storming into the blazing noon
Values in Gaza differ
differ
and differ
Occupied men's only value
Is the extent of their resistance against the enemy
This is the only competition that is there
The honorable and hard truth Gaza is addicted to
Not from books, nor from quick intensive courses
She learns
Time there doesn't take children
From babyhood to old age
But men it makes of them
with their first confrontation with the enemy
In Gaza time is not relaxation
But storming into the blazing noon
Values in Gaza differ differ and differ
Not from books, nor from quick intensive courses
Nor from propaganda's loud speakers and anthems
By experience only and work and labor it learned it
Not for advertising and the image
Pride with its weapons,
Revolutionary attitude
And budget
Its bitter flesh it presents
Willingly it spills its blood
Oration Gaza doesn't master
No throat she has
Its skin's spores speaks
sweating
Blood
And blaze
Enemy's hate up to killing starts from here
Fears her up to murder
And into the sea they wish to drawn her
Or in the desert
Or in blood
Its beloved and relatives from here
Their love starts
With bashfulness
Up to jealousy and fear sometimes
For Gaza is the savage lesson
And the shining symbol for friends and enemies
Both alike
Gaza not the most beautiful of cities it is
Its shore not bluer than these of other Arab cities they are...
And its oranges are not the most beautiful on the Mediterranean
And Gaza is not the richest of cities
And it is not the most progressive among cities
But it is equal to a nation's history...
Because it is the ugliest in the enemy's eyes
Poorer, more miserable and most ferocious
Because it is the savage lesson for the enemy
Because it is the most able to disturb the enemy
Because it is there nightmare
Because booby trapped are its oranges
Babies without babyhood and ageless aged men
Women without desire
And because this is what it is
It is the most beautiful
Clearest
Richest
And most worthy of love
Injustice we do her when we look for her poems
Because poetry she doesn't have
makes her the most beautiful among the beauties.
At a time when we tried to defeat the enemy with poetry
Rejoiced we became when the enemy left us to sing
The enemy we allowed to be victorious
To dry the poetry stuck on our lips
And the enemy we left to build:
Cities, fortresses
And streets!!!
Injustice we do Gaza when
A legend we make of her
But hate her when we discover that:
It is nothing but a small,
Poor,
And she resists
When we ask what made a legend of her?
All our mirrors we shall smash and cry
If dignity we have
Or curse her if
We refused her to revolt against ourselves!!!
Injustice we Gaza do if
We glorify her up to enchantment
Because enchantment will take us to
The verge of waiting
And Gaza doesn't come to us
Gaza doesn't liberate us
Gaza no horses it has
Or airplanes
Nor a magic stick
And also offices in capitals
Gaza liberates Itself from our
Characteristics
Language
And instincts all at the same time
And when through a - dream - we meet her
If she does recognizes us?
Because Gaza of fire it was born
And we for waiting
And for crying for lost homes we were born
True special circumstances
And private nature Gaza has
But Gaza's secret is not a puzzle
Her resistance is popular
United and knows what it wants
The enemy from her cloths
(She wants to expel )
With the masses Gaza's resistance is
The skin with flesh and bones
Not that of the teacher with students
Resistance in Gaza is not a paid for job
Nor an establishment Gaza's resistance is
Any body's guardianship she refuses
Its fate is not subjected to a thump print
or anybody's signature
She cares not, at all, to know
Its name or oratory skill
She never accepted to be
An advertising subject
She never pauses for camera's lenses
And doesn't her face smear with smile's paste
She and we do not want
Starting with this
Gaza for brokers is a losing trade
And starting with that Gaza
Is the Arab's priceless goldmine
Gaza's beauty is that our voices she doesn't hear
Nothing bothers her
Nothing turns away her fist
From the enemy's face
No disagreement on the form of Palestine's government
That we shall establish on the moon's eastern cheek!!!
Or the western cheek of Mars when discovered it is
It is busy with rejection
Hunger with rejection
Thirst with rejection
Diaspora (Ashatat) with rejection
Torture with rejection
Siege with rejection
Death with rejection
And rejection with rejection!!!
In Gaza the enemy could be victorious
(and the sea's high waves could be victorious
on an island that all its trees they uprooted or cut down )
Her bones they could break
Tanks they could plant in its children's chests
and women's bellies
And into the sea
Sand and blood But
But never lies she repeats or
say yes to invaders
Exploding she shall continue
It is neither death nor suicide
It is Gaza's style in declaring her worthiness of life
Coma
And exploding she shall continue
It is Gaza's style in declaring her worthiness of life
Confrontation for Palestine
Arabic at http://www.burbankdigest.com/node/163
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