From Palestinian poet Mahmud Darwish’s poem A State of Siege (my translation):
“…He says at the edge of death:
I have no footstep for loss,
Free I am near my freedom
and my future is in my hands…
and I shall enter, soon,
my life
and will be born free
without parents,
and will choose for my name
letters from sapphire*…
here, at the hills of smoke,
on the steps of the house,
there is no time for time,
we do what those
who ascend to God do:
we forget pain”
*This is the precious stone known in Arabic as Lazaward. I am not sure what it is in English. There is a poem by Yeats in which he uses it, but did not have time to look.
(thanks Ema for the suggestion)
Posted on May 31, 2004 by As'ad