Iraqi Aching
Iraqi Aching
Arabic Poem By: Saddam Fahd. Al-Asadi*
Translated into English By
Inaam Al-Hashimi (Gold_N_Silk)
===========================
For Iraq I slaughtered the silence in my pen
For Iraq I fended fear off my words
And for Iraq, I would smother the sun
In the vastness of a sieve,
And gather the vast sea
In a glass of debris!
For Iraq I burned embers in my lips.
And twisted light in a string of nothingness;
For Iraq I forced patience to be my escort,
As I went, footless, through the wilderness.
They smashed my head with an anvil
Oh joy! Thanks!
With my blood
They scented their anvil
And raged the pen planted in my pulse
So it writes, whenever it writes,
Curse lines for words.
Clouds climbed my drought with no rain,
And rocks crushed cups of grief in my throat;
I endured your agony,
Ah, how many Ayoubs ** are there in my flesh?
I’ve bled over and over again
And tears were lost in my pain;
I ground salt and, like dribble, I swallowed it,
My grinders shattered, yet my swelling didn’t break;
I crossed over fire, stepping on its embers,
And cried (eshshaah!) *** with the sting of ill death.
Woe to the loss of a homeland tied in my lung;
I reject it a land relishing in grudges;
I know Yazeed **** is cursed
Since the clouds of The Lord rained,
And the rooster crowed in my blood,
Till I forgot the “No” way I know
And turned to my understanding
why they fettered my “Yes.”
Alas, I say, to the executioner we kneel!
By God! So hideous is the glorification of an idol!
Idols of Mecca, now I don’t deem
Soldiers of Abraha trampled on my values.
Woe to my loss!
Terror walked on my roads
.And shattered the hope planted in my dream
Stand for Iraq and say to the war,
Woe upon my home land,
Son of Iraq, and take the sun
In procession into vim and vigor;
Let your eagle be haughty on its height,
To harm him at the heights is not right.
How come, today,
The lions starve in weariness,
As dogs lavish in boons?
Stand and be the field
For Hussein in his rising;
And draw your blood
On the flag and your palm;
Oh, my beloved homeland!
Bless them my verses,
They’ve come, between life and death,
To sing you my tune;
Oh God!
How I fear for my homeland,
I even fear for her name
To be uttered on my lips.
___________
Translated by:
Em. Prof. Inaam Al-Hashimi (Gold_N_Silk)
USA
February, 2010
Saddam Fahd. Al-Asadi* is a poet from Iraq
The original text was written in classical Arabic poetry
http://www.alnoor.se/article.asp?id=1738
Copyright © Inaam Al-Hashimi | Year Posted 2013
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