How Can I?

Look at me

I would love to write poetry about love,

Paint rainbows and butterflies,

Roll in a meadow

Enchanted by rosebud scent

Run down the hills with open arms

Embrace the Earth

Inhale the sky

 

I would love to dance for love;

Twirl with jubilant nightingales

Swept off my feet

Besotted, entranced

As I sing my lullaby

 

 

I would love to dream of love, stretch my wings

 Taste the clouds, touch infinity as I fly

Watch prophets pray

Hear angels sing

Bathe in light, a Heavenly delight

Roam the cosmos before I die

 

 

I would love to sing for love

Fling open the gates of my soul

Invite the world in

Tuck it all under my wings

Rock back and forth

Caress its wounds

Whisper “I love you”

Watch it heal before my eyes

 

 

I would love to close my eyes and see children smiling

Tell them stories of lily-like fairies in far-away lands

No guns pointing at their heads

No bullets shrieking…. no missiles exploding

No blood, no burns, no broken limbs,

no prison bars, no tears, no sighs

 

I would love to embrace a baby,

Hold her safe, sway her gently in my arms

Stroke her face in tender love and astounding wonder

Teach her sweet words, mama, baba, habibi Allah

Look into her eyes in dazzling awe and whisper

My amazing grace,

You are my hope, you are my love, you are my joy

 You are my rainbow, you are my lilac and my amber

 

But

How can I?

 

There is a dagger in my heart

I am hurting

Hurting

I bleed,

I cringe

I cry

HUMANITY,
WHERE ARE YOU?

I am being slaughtered

Under your watchful eyes

I am cold… cold…. cold

I cringe

I cry

Humanity,
where are you?

Why do you turn your face away?

Why do you keep looking the other way?

I am here

Languishing

In Gaza’s alleyways

 

Humanity, where are you?

Look at me

See me

I am here

Sighing

In Gaza’s alleyways

I cringe

I cry

Humanity,

Enough turning the other way

Turning a deaf ear

Turning a blind eye

While I, and oh … my poor children
Die

We Teach Love, Sir

Only in Palestine

 

Two Palestinian prisoners, one has been sentenced for 21 years and his friend has been sentenced for 7 years.

 

The friend who has the lowest sentence and after the approval of his mother, put a request to carry an extra 7 years on behalf of his friend, and to reduce the sentence of his friend.

 

His request was approved and they both were released  together yesterday, after 14 years in prison.

 

They celebrated together, along with their mothers, families and friends.

 

Of Her Love

• 

Author Issa Issa Qawasmi, translation Nahida Izzat

Seventy years on, the heart is still loaded with the same question, memory or amnesia?

Every Jerusalemite is born deeply involved in belonging,

A forbidden love that turns pulse into shrapnel,

A love carrying its identity from the wound of the place,

A love transparent, as a woman’s body, does not need much of beauty frills,

A love suffice for the universe and life without a question,

A love that relinquishes its thirst from the essence of a mirage,

A love which has no need for the wisdom of distant far away sister-cities, captured in the trap of humiliation and disgrace,

A love that passionately safeguards holiness, history, geography and reasons for survival,

A love overflowing between two wars, such as a bird nesting between Earth and the Sky,

A love, free, outside coincidence, like astonishment before the door of the Resurrection,

A love of which facts, evidence and the patience of enemies got exhausted,

A love that does not tire of interpreting love,

A love against treason or amnesia,

A love that resembles Jerusalem.

​On the fringes of my heart, I chose to love you,

Everything about you is lovable

​Forgive me if the age of my pulse is short,

I love you when a cloud injures me,

​and when the road does not lead me to you,

I love you if a moon rises in your palm and if your intimacy becomes hell,

I love you as I ran out of me to you, as the narcissus of your eyes brought me as a stranger,

I love you when I ​am alone​, the heart ​left with nothing but prayer and nostalgia,

I forget you, ​to get closer to you,

I forget you​,​ ​for in you I ​recover​ ​everything I ​ever lost.

 

بقلم الاديب المقدسي عيسى القواسمي وترجمة ناهدة عزت

سبعون عاما والقلب لا زال محملا بذات السؤال ، الذاكرة أم النسيان ؟كل مقدسي يولد متورطآ بالإنتماء ، حب محرم يحول النبض الى شظايا ، حب يحمل هويته من جرح المكان ، حب شفاف كجسد إمرأة لا يحتاج الى الكثير من رتوش الجمال ، حب يكفي الكون والعمر دون سؤال ، حب يروي عطشه من جوهر السراب ، حب لا يحتاج الى حكمة المدن الشقيقة البعيدة النائية الواقعة في فخ الذل والهوان ، حب ينتصر للقداسة والتاريخ والجغرافيا وأسباب البقاء ، حب فاض بين حربين مثل طير صنع أيكه بين الأرض والسماء ، حب حر خارج الصدفة كالدهشة أمام باب القيامة ، حب ضجرت منه الحقائق والبراهين وصبر الأعداء ، حب لا يتعب من تفسير الحب ، حب يشبه القدس ، حب ضد الخيانة أو النسيان

على هامش قلبي ، إخترت أن أحبك ، فكل ما فيك يحب … وأغفري لي إن كان عمر
النبض قصير ، أحبك حين تجرحني غيمة ولا تصوبني إليك الطريق ، أحبك إن
إرتفع قمر في كفك وصار وصالك جحيم ، أحبك إذ خرجت مني إليك وأعادني نرجس
عينيك كالغريب ، أحبك حين أترك وحيدآ ولا يمتلك القلب سوى صلاة وحنين .
وأنساك لأقترب منك ، أنساك فبك كل ما أضعت أستعيد .

 

Kissed By Heaven

​Heaven descends

Caresses your cheeks

Poses a kiss

On your weary brow
​
​You smile
​

Life blooms

 

 

With a tight embrace

and few tears

Heaven holds your heart

Washes your feet

You smile

Life blooms

I Miss You

What! Spring still visits you, my sweetheart, despite all that pain?

Does he still yearn to give your wounded cheeks a kiss?

Does he still caress your velvet plaits with scent of roses and jasmine?

Do daffodils still bloom in your meadows, in spite of death-makers?

O, do poppies still grows yearning to touch the feet of your beloved,

Enchanted, as prophets adoration of Heaven?

I miss you sweetheart, I miss your embrace

Take me to you, embrace me, never let go

Shatter me under the beats of your heart,  let me divvy with your breath

Fade away …  dissolve into nothingness

اشتقت اليك

ما زال الربيع يزورك يا حبيبة، مع كل ذياك الالم؟

اما زال يرنو الى وجنتيك الجريحتين بقبلة؟

ويمسح بعطر الورد والياسمين، جدائلك المخملية ؟

اما زال النرجس يزهر فوق رباك رغم انف صانعي الموت؟

اما زال يكبر الحنون تحت اقدام حبيبك يلامسها بعشق وبشوق الانبياء للجنة؟

اشتقت اليك يا حبيبتي، لدفئ حضنك

خذيني اليك، لا تتركيني ولا تفلتيني

دعيني اتفتت تحت دقات فؤادك، اتلاشى بين انفاسك

اذوب … اذوب حتى العدم

A young Poet

 

حكاية عشق ابدية

ذات ليلة مخملية سمراء مقدسية

دنا القمر من القمر

تعانق القمران

وبلهفة العشاق تبادلا النظرات والأشواق

همس البدر في اذن من يهوى

كفكفي الدموع يا حبيبة

قد أطَّ لمرآها عرش الرحمن

ولآهاتك الحرَّى المهيبة

اهتزت الأكوان

بالامس يا أحبتي

روى لنا الدهر حكاية

عن كونٍ هام بقمرٍ

عن قصة عشق ابدية

بين الخالق والمخلوق

بين الارض وبين السما

طأطأت رؤوسها الكواكب وسجدت النجوم

بين الصخرة والفردوس

قد مد حبل من نور

هنا قبَّلت الثرى الثريا

هنا صلى الانبياء

هنا عهد هنا وعد

هنا سعد وحبور

هنا طافت ارواح الشهدا

مع قرع للطبول

هنا ترتيل الملائك

تقتفي اثر الرسول

هنا صوت الحق يعلو

وهنا الباطل يفنى

وظلام الظلم يُمحى

هنا جبر للكسور

Eternal Love Story

Once upon a velvet night … A Jerusalemite night

The moon approached the moon

Two moons embraced

Like, true lovers, they gazed and exchanged tenderness

The moon whispered to his beloved’s ear

Sweetheart, let me dry your tears

Your tears shook the Throne of the Most Sublime

Your dignified sighs shattered the cosmos

Yesterday, my beloved

Epoch told us a story

About a Universe

Who fell in love with a moon

A never ending love story

Between Eternal and mortal, Infinite and finite

Heaven and Earth entwined

Planets bowed down, and stars prostrated in awe

Between a rock and Paradise

A rope of light unfurled

Here, galaxies kissed earth

Here, prophets prayed in adoration

Here, an oath… Here, a promise

Here, joy, bliss and delight

Here, souls of martyrs flew above

Buoyant, to drumbeats below

Here, the chanting of angels

Following footsteps of the messenger

Here, the sound of truth is loud and powerful

Here, falsehood is defeated

Here, darkness of oppression does not stand a  chance

Here, hearts are consoled, wounds are healed

A Refugee

I too, was once a refugee

Shipped away in a truck

Wearing two dresses and jumper

In the heat of summer June

Fearing for her children,

Mama, ran away with four daughters

The oldest was seven and new born baby boy

Thousands upon thousands, fleeing for safety

Unlike many, I survived the bombing

Unlike many, didn’t drown at sea

Day after day, I waited to go home

Listening to the news, ever since

Hoping to hear “Palestinians, time to return”

A refugee in Libya, stranger in a strange land

Teacher asked, “where are you from?”

Full of pain, guilt and shame

I couldn’t pronounce the name

Lips sealed, and mouth dried out

I trembled and cried, sobbed out loud

Palestine, Palestine, Palestine

Raged in my anguished brain

Living on donation and UN aid

Flour and oil and sardine cans

Used clothes and shoes with holes

Too much to bear, for self-respecting souls

Children too, weep loss of dignity

Rob of homeland and rape of identity

Children too ache of humiliation

Of having no place to call home