Autumn Arabic Poems

In the coldest zephyr,
I heard your voice as an elegy in the gust of wind

" I am the pen,
 and  you are my ink.
Together,we...

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On site of this forgotten Babylon
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in this annihilated place
What strange creature’s kin
to inhuman race
Dwell deep in antediluvian hells 
Uncanny...

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Looking back, one thing comes clean-glass clear
you were always there for me subduing every fear.

I tried to do my duty, be a husband strong and...

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Mahmoud Darwish English Translations of Arabic Poems



Palestine
by Mahmoud Darwish
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

This land gives us
all that makes life worthwhile:
April's blushing advances,
the aroma of...

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Distant Light
by Walid Khazindar
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch 

Bitterly cold,
winter clings to the naked trees.

If only you would free
the bright sparrows
from your fingertips
and release...

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The anger rising up against
The woven barrier of the mind
And amidst this chaos you will find 
laughter, tears and remorse at bait!...

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The Care and Feeding of Ideas

Someone wrote them down. 
Words, on parchment, various kinds.
Someone else...
probably edited, and formatted, 
and thought through, and revised, 
and then...

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Such Tenderness
by Michael R. Burch

for the mothers of Gaza

There was, in your touch, such tenderness—as
only the dove on her mildest day has,
when she shelters downed...

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Trapped

An imprisoned animal walks the bars back and forth at the zoo. 
I have seen my guy do the same thing in the garage. 
You...

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When old sailors go 

A seaman sees death as an ocean of tranquillity
 no storm will upset his raft he can safely sleep
Through the ages...

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Missing You

The wind whispers and I focus my heart to hear.
Are you sending me your words? 
Your thoughts? 

I can think of nothing…but you. 
My...

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sharper turn page has been turned
Allanis Morrisette..,
blosomed to behold;
shouts of chard relish above
count me through the surface fly
benefit of a twist of the eye...
Bobby Flav,...

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Waiting for a brisk autumn wind
swept away the heat wave
Put out the fire-like light day after day
It roams the city as cheap love
 It drills...

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I guess I once was a juvenile delinquent. Then I became an adult delinquent. Now I'm a middle age delinquent. Soon enough I'll be a...

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Yarab Mai Khoya Tha Teri Ibadat ki Un Namazon Me,
          Duniyawi Arkam Ko tune mere Liye...

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