Wednesday, September 01, 2004

From the poem The Earth Does not Rotate by Iraqi poet `Abdul-Wahab Al-Bayyati (my translation):
If you wish, gentlemen, the earth does
not rotate
And its half does not cover darkness
and it does not contain those tombs
except puppets, dolls, and flowers
and everything that was, and will be,
written down and destined
You are the masters
and we are in your court
freaks and servants
guiding the horses in the barn
and we are your soldiers in war
dying for the eyes of the
cat of the prince
and the glitter of the gold
of thieves, and merchants
in the trenches of encampments
and we are in the funeral of dusk
a hungry, poor, and helpless
people
violated by the Mongols
If you wish, gentlemen, I say
what the poet said to the sultan
through ages of oppression
and humiliation
we are a volcano without smoke
and a revolution without time
If you wish, gentlemen, you
may silence the poem, and break
the guitar
and you may stop rivers
your time has passed forever
and you are no more than ghosts
without tombs
and the earth rotates,
despite your hatred,
and light has covered its
deserted half