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Speak speak, that we may know the end of this travelling: Mahmoud Darwish محمود درويش

Posted: April 7, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Arabic, English, Mahmoud Darwish |Comments Off on Speak speak, that we may know the end of this travelling: Mahmoud Darwish محمود درويش

We are grateful to A. Z. Foreman for the following translation from Arabic into English.

Visit his site:  http://www.poemsintranslation.blogspot.com

 

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Mahmoud Darwish / محمود درويش

(Palestine/Israel,1941-2008)

We travel like anyone else

 

 

We travel like anyone else, but do not return to anything

as if travelling

Were the way of the clouds. We buried our loved ones deep

in the shadow of the clouds and among the trunks of the trees.

We told our wives: give birth by us for centuries,

that we may complete this journey and see

A moment of a country, a meter of what can’t be.

In the carriages of the psalms we travel, in the tent of the prophets we sleep,

we come out of the words the gypsies speak.

We measure space with a hoopoe’s beak

or sing to while the distance away or wash the moonlight clear.

Long is your path, so dream of seven women to bear this long path on

Your shoulders. Shake the palmtree for each one

to know her name and which shall be

the mother of the boy from Galilee*.

Ours is a country of words. Speak, speak,

that I may lay my road on stone of stone to something.

Ours is a country of words. Speak speak

that we may know the end of this travelling.

 

 

* “the mother of the boy from Galilee”

refers to Mary, mother of Jesus

نسافر كالناس
محمود درويش
نُسافِرُ كَالنَّاسِ، لَكنَّنا لاَ نَعُودُ إلَى أي شيْءِ… كَأَنَّ السَّفَرْ
طريقُ الغُيُومِ، دَفَنَّا احِبَّتنا في ظِلاَل الغُيُوم وَبَيْنَ جُذُوع الشَّجَرْ
وقُلْنَا لِزوْجَاتِنَا: لِدْنَ مِنَّا مَئَات السَّنين لِنُكملَ هَذَا الرَّحِيلْ
إلى سَاعَةٍ مِنْ بِلادٍ وَمتْرٍ من المُسْتَحيلْ
نُسَافِرُ في عَرَبَات المَزَامير نَرْقُدُ في خَيمْةِ الأَنْبيَاءِ ونَخْرُجُ مِنْ كَلِمَاتِ الغَجَرْ
نَقيسُ الفَضَاء بِمِنْقَار هُدْهُدَةٍ أو نُغَنِّي لنُلْهي المَسَافَةَ عَنَّا وَنَغْسل ضوءَ القَمَرْ
طَويلٌ طَريِقُك فَاحْلُمْ بِسَبْع نسَاءٍ لتَحْمِل هَذَا الطَّريقَ الطَّوِيلْ
عَلَى كَتِفَيْكَ وَهُزَّ لَهُنَّ النَّخِيلَ لِتَعْرف أَسْمَاءَهُنَّ وَمِنْ أَيِّ أُمَّ سَيُولَدُ طِفْلُ الجليلْ
لَنَا بَلَدٌ من كَلاَمٍ تَكَلَّمْ تَكَلَّمْ لأُسْنِد دَرْبي عَلَى حَجَرٍ مِنْ حَجَرْ
لَنَا بَلَدٌ مِنْ كَلاَمٍ تَكَلِّمْ تَكلَّمْ لِنَعْرفَ حَدّاً لِهذَا السَّفَرْ!
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