Saturday, January 07, 2006

I have the wisdom of a person sentenced to death by Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish (my translation):

"I have the wisdom of a person sentenced to death:
Nothing I own to own me,
I wrote my will with blood:
"Trust in water, o residents
of my song!"
And I slept bloodied
and crowned with my future...
I dreamt that the heart of the earth
is larger than its map,
and more clear than its mirrors
and my gallow.
And I fancied a white cloud
that can take me higher
like a hoopoe, and wind is my wing.
And in the morning,
I was awakened by the
call of the night guard
from my dream and
from my language:
You will live another death,
so revise your last will,
execution time has been
postponed again,
I asked: until when?
He said: Wait until you die further
I said: Nothing I own to own me
I wrote my will in blood:
"Trust in water
o residents of my song!"

(My friends in Lebanon: send me the new Darwish's book of poetry. And send it NOW. I can't wait to translate the first poem in the book, Think of Yourself)