Arabic Poems

  Rain Song                                               أنشودة المطر    Your eyes are two palm tree forests in early light, Or two balconies from which the moonlight recedes When they smile, your eyes, the vines put forth their eaves, And lights dance .. like moons in a river Rippled by the blade of an oar at break of day; As if stars were throbbing in the depths of them . . . And they drown in a mist of sorrow translucent Like the sea stroked by the hand of nightfall; The warmth of winter is in it, and the shudder of autumn, And death and birth, darkness and light; A sobbing flares up to tremble in my soul And a savage elation embracing the sky, Frenzy of a child frightened by the moon. It is as if archways of mist drank the clouds And drop by drop dissolved in the rain … As if children snickered in the vineyard bowers, The song of the rain rippled th...

  Identity Card                                 بطاقة هوية Write it down! I’m an Arab My card number is 50000 My children number eight And after this summer, a ninth on his way. Does this make you rage? I am an Arab. With my quarry comrades I labor hard My children number eight I tug their bread, their clothes And their notebooks From within the rock I don’t beg at your door I don’t cower on your threshold So does this make you rage? Write it down! I am an Arab. I am a name with no honorific. Patient in a land Where everything lives in bursting rage My roots were planted before time was born Before history began Before the cypress and the olive trees Before grass sprouted My father is from the plough clan Not from the noble class My grandfather was a peasant farmer Had no pedigree Taught me the pride of the sun Before teachi...