Lover from Palestine
“Your eyes
A thorn in my heart
Painful yet adorable
I shield it from the wind
And stab it deep through the night
Through pain
Its wound illuminates the darkness
Transforms my present into future
Dearer than my soul
And I shall forget as our eyes meet
That once we were together behind the gate
……….
Your words were my song
I tried singing
But winter replaced the spring
Your words, like the sparrow, flew away
Like the sparrow who left our doors
After you
Our mirrors broke-sorrows engulfed us
We picked the splinters of sound
And only learned to lament the Fatherland
……….
We shall plant it together
Over the breast of a guitar
Play it over the roofs of our tragedy
To disfigured moons and rocks
But I have forgotten
I have forgotten your voice
Was it my silence
Was it my silence or
Your departure
That rusted my guitar?
………..
I saw you last at the port
A lonely traveler without luggage
I ran to you like an orphan, a child
Seeking answers in ancestral wisdom:
How could the green orchard be imprisoned
Exiled, banished to a port
And still remain green
………..
I entered in my diary
I love oranges
And hate the port
Where I stood
As torrents of rain poured down
We only had the orange peels
And behind us stretched the endless desert
………..
I saw you on thorny hills
A sheepless shepherd-chased
I saw you on the ruins and once
You were a green orchard
I stood a stranger
Knocking at your door
The doors, the windows, the cemented stone
Vibrated
………..
I saw your face in the wells
In the granaries-torn
I saw you a waitress in the night cafes
I saw through the tears and wounds
And you are the words on my lips
You are the fire
And the water
………..
I saw you at the mouth of a cave
Hanging your orphan’s rags
I saw you in the stalls, in the streets
Warming yourself by the fire
I saw you in the lamentations of misery
In blood dripping from the sun
In the salt of the sea and the sand
And yet
You were as beautiful as the earth
As children
…………
I swear
From my eyelashes I shall weave you
A kerchief
with words sweeter than honey
And kisses I shall write:
And kisses you were
And so you will remain
………..
I opened my doors to the night storm
On a bronzy moon
I wandered the back streets in the darkness
And I have a date with words
With the dawn of light
You are my virgin garden as
Faithful as the wheat
With our songs we shall pierce the air
And plant fertility in the dormant earth
And you like the braided palm tree
Unbending to the storm
Heedless of the hewer’s blows
Beyond the claw and the fangs of the jungle beasts
…………
Come to me wherever you are
Whatever you have become
And return color to my cheeks
And meaning to my being
Return and take me into your eyes
Take an olive branch
Take a verse of my tragedy
A toy
Take a stone from our house
So that our descendants
Will remember their way home
………..
Palestinian are your eyes
Palestinian is your name
Palestinian your thoughts-dreams
Palestinian your mantilla, your body
Your feet
Palestinian the words-the silence
Palestinian the voice
Palestinian in life
Palestinian in death
…………
I carried you in my diaries
Inspiration for the fire of my words
The food for my thoughts
And in your name I shout in the valleys:
Invaders’ horses!-I met them
Though the times have changed
Beware-beware hooves and stones
I destroyed the big idols
The thunderbolt has struck the flint
I shall fill the expanses of Sham
With my songs
………..
In your name I have shouted to the enemy:
If I sleep
Let maggots eat my flesh
Ants cannot breed eagles
And the snake hatches only snakes
Long ago
I turned away the invaders’ horses
Deep in my soul!
I know
I will turn them away again”.