THE HANDSTAND

JULY 2007

 


Fedayee  Circulars

on the Walls of “Israel

By: Nizar Qabani©

Translated By: Adib S. Kawar

-1-

You shall not make of our people

A people of Red Indians

Because we are remaining here...

In this land that wears on its wrist

a bracelet of roses

This is our land

We lived in it from the dawn of time

And on it we played... We loved... And wrote poetry...

Sprinkled we are around it gulfs

Like sea weeds

Sprinkled we are in its history

In its “Taboun” bread... in its olives

In its yellowish wheat

Sprinkled we are in its sentiments

Remaining in its March

Remaining in its April

Remaining like engraving in the wood of crosses

And in the Ten Commandments

-2-

Don’t get drunk with victory

If you kill Khaled

Amr shall come

If you crush a rose

The fragrance shall prevail

 

-3-

Because Moses’ hands were amputated

And he no more masters the art of magic

Because Moses’ stick was broken

And he shall no more be able

To split the waters of the sea…

Because… America you are not

And we are not Red Indians

Exterminated you shall all be…

Over the deserts of Egypt

-4-

Al-Aqsa Mosque… A new martyr

To the old account we added it…

Fire and Flames

Are nothing but lanterns illuminating the road…

-5-

From the canes of forests

Like Jinn we shall come out for you

From parcel posts… From buss seats…

From cigarette boxes…

From benzene cans

From tomb stones…

From chalk… From blackboards

From girls’ braids…

From crosses' wood

From frankincense thuribles

From prayer shawls

From Koran paper, we shall come to you…

From lines from verses

You shall not escape

Mixed With the wind we are…

In water…in plants

Kneaded we are

In colors… In sounds

Escape you shall not…

Escape you shall not…

In every home there is a rifle…

From the bank of the Nile to the bank of the Euphrates

-6-

You shall not rest with us…

Every martyr of ours

Falls thousands of times…

 

-7-

Beware…!

Beware…! Lamp posts has nails

Death is waiting for you

Tens of eyes windows have…

In every passing face…

Or glance… Or waist

Death is hidden for you…

In every woman’s comb…

And in every hair wisp…

 

-8-

You “Israel” ilk… let not conceitedness drive you

Clock arms if they stop

They certainly shall turn again

Rapping the land shall frighten us not

Feathers fell off eagles wings

Long thirst doesn’t frighten us

Water shall remain in the hearts of rocks

You defeated the armies… But you shall not

Shall not defeat sentiments…

The heads of trees you cut

But roots prevailed…

 

-9-

We advise you to read

What was written in the psalms

We advise you to carry your Torah

And follow your prophet to the mountain

Bread you have not here…

Nor presence…

From every mosque’s door

From behind every broken pulpit

One night, Al-Hajjaj Bin yusuf shall emerge

And Al-Mansour shall emerge…

Always be waiting for us…

From where you don’t expect us…

In every airport we are…

In every traveling ticket…

From Rome we shall come out

In Zurich

From under every rock…

From behind statues we shall come…

And flower pots…

Our men shall arrive without a rendezvous

Under the anger of thunder… and rain showers…

Wearing the messenger’s cloak

Or Omar’s sword

Our women…

Palestine’s sorrows they paint… on the tears of trees

Palestine’s kids they shall burry… in people’s sentiments

Our women carry Palestine’s stones…

To the surface of the moon….

-10-

You stole a homeland…

The world clapped for the hazard…

Thousands of our homes you confiscated…

Thousands of our children you sold…

The world clapped for the agents…

Oil you stolen from churches…

Christ you stole from his home in Nazareth

The world clapped for the adventure…

-

-11-

Remember…

Always remember

That how mighty America is…

It is not God the great the dear…

And that America how powerful it is…

Shall not stop the birds to fly…

The big could be killed…

By a small rifle in little kid’s hand…

-12-

Our rendezvous shall come with sunset…

Our next rendezvous is in Tel Aviv…

Victory from God… and an imminent conquest…

-13-

June is not but a day in time…

And the most beautiful roses are that

Grow in the gardens of sorrow…

-14-

Sorrow has young ones that shall grow…

Long pain has young ones that shall grow…

For these you killed in June…

young ones that shall grow…

For the land…

For neighborhoods…

0f our doors… young ones that shall grow…

All of them gathered together for thirty years…

In interrogation rooms…

In police stations… In prisons…

Gathered like tears in eyes…

And them all…

In any… Any moment… through all Palestine’s doors…

They shall enter…

-15-

In his book  God wrote:

That from Egypt you shall come out…

And in its wilderness you shall…

You shall suffer hunger and thirst…

And instead of God the calf you shall worship…

And in God’s beneficence

you shall ungrateful be…

And in the circulars distributed by our men…

We added to what the all mighty said

Two lines…

From the peaks of the Golan you shall be forced out..

And out of the Jordan’s banks

And here we are remaining …

By the force of arms you shall be forced out…

-16-

The one eyed charlatan shall die

And remaining here we are…

Gardens…

And orange aroma…

Remaining while God drew…

On the copybooks of the mountains…

Remaining in our oil presses…

And the weaving machines…

In the high and in the low tides…

In sunrise and sunset…

Remaining in fishing boats…

In sea shells…in sands…

Remaining in love songs

And in resistance poems…

Remaining in poetry… in anthems…

Remaining in the (Dabkeh) and (almawal)…

In folk tales… in proverbs…

Remaining in the white and red kafiehs…

In the head bands…

Remaining in chivalry of the horseman…

The salutes of men to men…

Remaining in soldier’s coats…

In fighters wounds

In wheat spikes

In the breathes of the north…

Remaining in the cross…

In the crescent…

In student’s revolutions … remaining we are…

In workers pickaxes…

In engagement rings… we remain…

In baby’s cots…

In tears…

In hopes we remain…

-17-

Hundreds of millions…

Angry Arabs are behind the horizon…

Beware their retaliation…

The day out of the (Qomqom) they jump out…

-18-

Palestinians remained for long years knocking doors…

Begging for the bread of justice from the tables of wolves…

To God he complained for his pains…

And when…

His Horse he saddled…

When he retrieved and oiled his rifle…

Then he will be…

Able to settle the old account…

-19-

We are who draw the maps…

Draw hillsides and plateaus…

We are who shall start the trial…

Grant reward… and impose punishment…

-20-

Arabs who were with you…

Exporters of dreams…

After June… They changed… to…

Mine fields…

And “Hanoi” from its place moved…

And Vietnam too…

-21-

History’s gardens… always bloom…

Our people woke up…

Green leaves sprang from dry branches…

Those about whom you said… got fossilized…

They changed…

Changed…

-22-

I, the Palestinian…

After the long journey of forfeiture…

Grow like grass I shall from dissolution…

Like lighting I illuminate your faces…

Pour down like clouds…

Come out every night…

From my old home… from door knobs…

From strawberry leaves… and from ivy shrubs…

From the water fountain…

The chatter of the spout…

I from my father’s voice…

From my mother’s kind and attractive face…

From black eyes… and eyelashes I rise…

From the windows of my beloved…

and the letters of my lovers…

From the smell of the soil of my land…

I open the door of my house…

Enter it without hearing the answer…

Because I am the question and the answer…

-23-

Under  the siege… of hate and grudge…

From here… Abu Obaida’s army…

And Moawieh from there…

Your peace is torn out…

Your homes circled they are…

Like the home of any whore…

-24-

Wearing our black and white kaffiehs…

Paint on your skins the sign of redemption…

From the time’s womb we shall come…

like a strong fountain…

From the tent of ignominy chewed by the wind…

From the pains of Al-Hussein…

From Fatima’s sorrows…

From the battle of Uhud… From Bader we come…

We come to amend history and things…

To obliterate the letters…

From…  From the streets with Hebrew... names…


Adib S.Kawar and one of his paintings