The Tree of Descent

The Tree of Descent Arabic poem by: Saad Yassin Yousuf * Translated into English by: Inaam Al-Hashimi (Gold_N_Silk) ================================= As she descended from her paradise, She said : Oh Lord, choose a land for me Where I would strew, out of my womb, Tribes of greenery So my limb would rise again toward you, As I dissolve salt And conglomerate it to be fresh dates Praying that dream-doves of the captives, And the flutter of their wings, May illuminate the courtyard of the creature’s inner soul, If the sun should set within him; Then he would realize How the root becomes hymns, And bread For eyes waiting at gates corroded by the dessert, And bitten by hankering. He said: “I’ve chosen you a witness …” “I beg your pardon!” She exclaimed, “ A witness?! A witness to infanticide? !!, To the bullets as they pass by reiterating the names of their hosts? And to death as it rains down on the banks of the breasts.??” Pity tears in her eyes She questioned bleeding hearts With whispers of flush streams With the woe of the fore waves. How often they have witnessed Sadness in the days of butchers Who, behind the trunks of deranged time, Kept burying the atrocity of their innocence doves. The rivers snuffed out the lanterns of their gulls, And, under the stars of quiescence, Slumbered with fainting breath. Fragments of wars waged by maniac rhetoricians Bent all the trunks of joy dancing within us; Oh, how Mary kept shaking the trunk of the palm tree, but embers of tragedy kept dropping upon her! The grass was burnt... The infant eyes lost their light In a clandestine rocking , The “Fao” with severed head and red shirt scrambled Bustling with screams. The river was waving with the distressed ink shirt Then, and again, hiding its face and crying - O Our Aunt, Our Aunt, Forgiveness… Our towns Are now sand towns And could no longer be saved By prayers. **** Translation by: Em. Prof. Inaam al-Hashimi (Gold_N_silk) ?April ?14, ?2013 *Saad Yassin Yousuf is a poet from Iraq The Original text in Arabic: http://www.alnoor.se/article.asp?id=206108