Tell those who Inherit their
Rifles the Legacy of our Blood²
Memory has the Fragrance of a
Weeping Night Flower Arousing
In the Exile’s blood a need to Sing³
In the Eternal Saga of Pain, we are
The Teardrop in the Dove’s Cooing⁴
Soldiers measure the distance between
Being & Nonbeing with a Tank’s Scope⁵
From you the Sword – from us the Blood,
From you the Steel & Fire – from us the Flesh⁶
And they search us: in our breasts just our Hearts,
In our hearts just our People, in our voices just our
Grief, in our grief just our Cell – and they search
Our cell: only to find Themselves in Chains⁷
We write Twenty Lines about Love and
The Siege Withdraws Twenty Meters⁸
We give the Walls back to the Rocks⁹
When we Dream Beautiful Dreams,
We Breach all Borders¹⁰
All lines from Mahmoud Darwish
¹ Homing Pigeons tr. Lena Jayyusi & W.S. Merwin
² The Everlasting Indian Fig tr. Amira El-Zein
³ Mural tr. Munir Akash & Carolyn Forché
⁴ The Kindhearted Villagers tr. Amira El-Zein
⁵ A State of Siege tr. Fady Joudah
⁶ O Those Who Pass Between Fleeting Words, in Jerusalem Post April 2, 1988
⁷ Poem of the Land tr. original
⁸ A State of Siege tr. Fady Joudah
⁹ The Prison Cell tr. Ben Bennani
¹⁰ Mural tr. Munir Akash & Carolyn Forché