Saturday, October 09, 2004

From the poem State of Siege by Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish (my translation):
Standing here. Sitting here.
permanent here. Immortal here.
And we have one and only goal:
that we be.
And after that, we disagree over everything:
over the image of the national flag
(You would do good if you select,
oh, my living people, the emblem
of a simple donkey)
And we disagree over the words of
the new anthem
(You would do good if you select
a song about the marriage of pigeons)
And we disagree over the duties
of women
(You would do good if you select
a woman to head the security apparatuses)
We disagree over the percentages,
over the private and the public,
Disagree over everything.
Having one goal:
that we be.
After that, one can find
plenty of room to select the goal