Sunday, July 30, 2006

From the poem Here, We are Staying by Palestinian poet Tawfiq Zayyad (my translation):
"As if we are twenty impossibles
in Ludd, Ramlah, and Jalil
Here...on your chests, we stay
like a wall, in your throat,
like a piece of glass, like a cactus
and in your eyes, a tornado of fire
Here...on your chests, we stay
like a wall
washing dishes in bars
filling glasses for the notables
and wiping floors in the
black kitchens
to distill the bite for children
from your blue canine tooth
Here on your chests, we stay
like a wall
We get hungy...get naked...
and defy..
chant poetry
fill the angry streets with demonstrations
and fill the prison with dignity
and make children...
a revolutionary generation..
after generation..
as if we are twenty impossibles
In Ludd, Ramlah, and Jalil
We here are staying
So let you drink the sea
We guard the shadow of
fig and olive trees
and we plant ideas,
like yeast in the dough
The cold of ice in our nerves
and in their heart the red hell
If we get thirsty, we squeeze the desert
And we eat sand, if we get hungy...
And we shall never leave..!!...
Here we have a past...a present..
and future..
As if we are twenty impossibles
in Ludd, Ramlah, and Jalil...
O, our living root, cling firmly"