Long Borrows Poems

As winter hazes of January spraying
While I was meditating on how
To write this riveting poem which
Seemed to be for someone who
I never cast in my sight.
Despite her name is not an odd in me
But I...

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Fadwa Tuqan has been called the Grand Dame of Palestinian letters and The Poet of Palestine. These are my translations of Fadwa Tuqan poems originally written in Arabic.



Enough for Me
by Fadwa Tuqan 
loose translation/interpretation by...

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English translations of Arabic poems by Fadwa Tuqan aka "The Poet of Palestine"

Enough for Me
by Fadwa Tuqan 
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Enough for me to lie in the earth,
to be buried in her,
to sink...

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Summer magic, Winter delight, Spring fresh, and beautiful Fall.
The diverseness of the assorted seasons tends to delight us.
Each has its own ambiance and nuances, after all.
Some years they arrive with less fuss and muss.
Summer is...

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When it comes to money, why do people speak poverty over their lives and have the fear of not having it?
People speak, I don’t know what I’m gonna do
That’s all I got 
I don’t know...

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More money makes themselvs better,
Such fancy cloths and shoes made with real leather,
They judge not knowing what happens behind the curtain,
They dont see the lost soul hidden,
Beneath the skin holds only darkness within,
Unless you have...

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Old Jambu tree
Still bearing fruits;
Generous delights

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NDP crowd
Massive tapestry;
Community celebration

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Each passing year
Affirms our country;
Diversity in oneness

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We celebrate
Our little red dot;
Gratitude remembers

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So much to see
So little time;
Familiar complaint

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Fireworks display
After The Pledge;
Poignant philosophy

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Politics means action
Mere words concede;
Happy results...

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She lived in shadows, where light felt too bright
And joy was something spoken of,
But seldom felt or experienced, something
That most of the time, meant reaching for another,
Another’s joy, though not hers, 
She hoped might, somehow,...

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day and night Blattaria of various shapes and sizes 
scuttle with incandescent 
   after glow as flashing blur rises
to fill every quarter of mine cerebral core, when asleep pries
me lids awake with shell...

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You, me, seashore, one place, one earphone,  
Coconut with two straws—one ice cream, two noses.  
Cold winds, but your warmth wraps me whole,  
Two souls in one sweater, hearts beating slow.

Sitting under...

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Follow me and I will follow you only to sacrifice and pledge my soul.
Now known only as one!
Soaring in the winds with rapid inspirations exploding one by one,
It is your final fantasy to live again!
Victim...

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Top shelf cologne exhibits sensual tail of peacock
Entrances my senses at our eleven a.m embrace
Eyes shut, my erratic stamina borrows comfort 
Curled into leather front seat, chest inhales safe


Our waterfall guffaws cascade in establishments of...

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Sundrenched sorrows
Sundrenched worries of tomorrow’s
Troublesome wind and rain
Driving me and you insane
I can’t be sane…

Anxious as always
It remains here to stay…
Going through these days
Of a grief-stricken sunray

Sundrenched sorrows…
Sundrenched sorrows…
There are no tomorrows
No time to yield...

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QUESTIONS OF BALANCE: A JEREMIAD

Why is it at 70 politicians are still underage
To assume political offices	
And at 30 youths are overage to begin a professional career?

What divine strength hath a leader at 75
When a mandatory...

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Yours truly borrows a phrase
courtesy the great bard
also known as
William Shakespeare's Hamlet:
"For 'tis the sport ...
Hoist by one's own petard
meaning "victimized or hurt 
by one's own scheme”.

The aforementioned excerpt
hopefully describes the fate
to befall president of...

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I lived to know the beauty of pain, 
my smile growing thicker as I cried harder,
the ache in my chest pounding through to my head hurt so much that I laughed.
How I have grown to...

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[The primary cause of the 1986 space shuttle disaster was an O-ring of a design that hadn’t been tested below fifty degrees. But hey... it’s Florida, right? 
That fateful night before the launch, the temperature...

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As he tipped her off with swollen eyes and words to cry. He tells himself a little lie, for she isn’t as fair as I. He hides his face of extreme sly, holding his breathe...

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My God, make me the vessel* You want me to be
marked by divine craftsmanship… not
bearing grandeur of self-exalting potter the
aim is to become finest, full-fledged first…

Help me, Lord, to settle for Your favour toward sweet...

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In dreams of yonder, wishes wistfully conceive,
A cradle of lost tomorrows, where shadows sway;
To a realm unseen, where hearts believe,
Past where twilight’s lulling lullabies lay,
A world where reverie and reality secretly play.

Through the veil of...

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My hot ice, my sprinter-Turtle, purple rose and my wife,
your creation puzzles nature as every cell in you gives comfort.
So cheerful you are, that your shadow has a dimple
you shed a tear and oxygen pulls...

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I love the words you speak
For they reinforce the ideal in which hands speak.
A warmth that can't be heard, only felt.
A bonfire released in a cylinder.
The crackling of dopamine like wood.
Branches that provide warmth in...

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"Now the time is here
For Iron Man to spread fear
Vengeance from the grave
Kills the people he once saved" - Iron Man (Black Sabbath)

running through the forest of sorrows
running from myself
running from them
created
created in their image
in...

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When government spends more than it collects in taxes,
it borrows money from a central bank, and must pay it back with interest.
Government never has the money when the loan is due,
so the burden of this...

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One day God was suffering from sorrows
Because everyone complaining about the sorrows.

Angry god made his mind
Curse a face without any kind.

Thus sorrows became Mr Sorrows
Now Mr. Sorrows will face the sorrows.

Real world and real sorrows
Ready...

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