Wednesday, December 30, 2009

I belong there:Mahmoud Darwish

I belong there. I have many memories.
 I was born as everyone is born.
I have a mother, a house with many windows,
 brothers, friends, and a prison cell
with a chilly window! I have a wave snatched by seagulls,
 a panorama of my own.
I have a saturated meadow.
 In the deep horizon of my word, I have a moon,
a bird's sustenance, and an immortal olive tree.
I have lived on the land long
 before swords turned man into prey.
I belong there. When heaven mourns for her mother,
 I return heaven to 
   her mother.
And I cry so that a returning cloud might carry my tears.
To break the rules,
 I have learned all the words needed for a trial by blood.
I have learned and dismantled all the words 
in order to draw from them a 
   single word: Home.