Wednesday, January 14, 2009

we will not go down

Gaza has no throat.

Its pores are the ones that speak in sweat, blood, and fires.
Hence the enemy hates it to death and fears it to criminality, and tries to sink it into the sea...And hence its relatives and friends love it with a coyness that amounts to jealousy and fear at times, because Gaza is the brutal lesson...and the shining example for enemies and friends alike.

Gaza is not the most beautiful city.
Its shore is not bluer than the shores of Arab cities.
Its oranges are not the most beautiful in the Mediterranean basin.

Gaza is not the richest city.
It is not the most elegant or the biggest, but it equals the history of an entire homeland, because it is more ugly, impoverished, miserable, and vicious in the eyes of enemies.

Because it is the most capable, among us, of disturbing the enemy’s mood and his comfort. Because it is his nightmare. Because it is mined with oranges; children without a childhood; old men without old age; and women without desires. Because of all this it is the most beautiful, the purest and richest among us and the one most worthy of love.

Mahmoud Darwish

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i was thinking just now that i'm glad -- and glad is the wrong word -- that darwish isn't alive to see this. what would we do with the poetry he'd write about this. it's arendt all over again, poetry after auschwitz.

Anonymous said...

Where did you get this from?
Did you translate it?
If you did, then your Arabic must be really good. If not, then were his works translated to English?
Kindly provide a link to his works in English.

Anonymous said...

lol...aren't anon asking for links/references a bit too much these days?...


awesome yet again asmaa.

Asmaa said...

Abdul, it's okay for people to ask for references; I probably should've put it in the original post anyways. I originally got it off another blog: http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/