Saturday, October 23, 2004

From the poem Last Prayer by Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish (my translation):
It appears to me that my life is short
and that I am a tourist on earth
and that the girlfriend of my
drunken heart will cheat if
I am away from her
that she will drink wine
and write poetry
for somebody else,
because I am a tourist
on earth!
It appears to me
that a dagger of betrayal
will dig in my back
And a newspaper will write:
"He was struggling"
And my folks and neighbors
will be sad
and our enemies will rejoice
And after a few months
they will say: He was!...
It appears to me that
the sea of ashes
will grow after me
wine and wheat
And that I will not feed it
Because I am alone
in my grave with my skull
And on my lips is a
smile of relief
because I made with others
the yeast of future days
and the wood of our ship
in the sea of ashes
It appears to me that
my life is short
and that I am a tourist
on this earth
And if one heart beat
stays in my blood
to bring me back to life
If I
depart from the thorns
of our ascending paths
I would have said:
Bury me now
I am the twin of the gigantic summit!!