Long Cactus Poems

Here We Shall Remain
by Tawfiq Zayyad
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Like twenty impossibilities
in Lydda, Ramla and Galilee ...
here we shall remain.

Like brick walls braced against your chests;
lodged in your throats
like shards of glass
or prickly cactus...

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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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                 On the first day of yuletide my dear presented me

        ...

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I pray for my friend right now and hope he can find his way and his WHY

STATE OF CHAOS

Your home has a consciousness, it has a mind of its own
You must clear up the clutter,...

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Metaphor of outrage, Translation of Carlos Bousono’s poem : Metafora del desafuero

			                    ( In celebration of...

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........Cactus
....Water Towers
Isolated desolates
Wrapped in spikes
Fluted aqua Greys
Or in military green
Reaching the skies
The desolate cacti 
The desert fingers 
Withholding blaze..
Desicating breeze..........
.Blistering freeze..................
Where not a blade....................
Nothin' germinate......................
Them root in dust.....................
Wasteland, gravel.....................
The fluted barrels......................
They shrink in dry......................
Bellow up...

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Treading Down the Journey of Life

                            I have...

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Inevitable death defines afterlife - deux

Flinty stones figuratively rolling inside
whooping out that primal 
binaural beat of your drum
ma mind haphazardly 
ricocheting axon to neuron
inducing inxs of chaos 
wreaking entropy beheld 
by beauty and the beast
enveloping...

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Itsy Bitsy the tiny pixy always wore a frown
for the other pixys treated him like a clown
The other pixy boys did not want Itsy Bitsy around
Itsy Bitsy flew too slow with small wings that were...

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You have breached the zone; tell me where else can the children roam? You have planted landmines on every corner and you have disrupted the social order. I hear sirens going off in my dreams...

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Opening 
Fourth street and the divide meet 
Near the stream where it's waters Impede 
Five metres walk from the wooden bridge 
A little further away from the deserted car park 
Underneath the third tree with...

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Pedestrians are moving ups and downs the day can define the differences he experiences in the bathroom, cars buzzing their noise, around my understanding I cannot keep on thrusting for answers which has to be...

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Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson
A brand new sheriff came to town
I'm sure he's not the last
We've had fourteen in the past year
They leave here mighty fast

Some can't stand the pressure
Others end up in boot hill
It...

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Taming a tropical topical tree? Taking a trunk? Telling a tailor? Traversing a tale? Many ideas. Much like the ideological dramas of a beach front. Wavelength of winds. Movements if the tides. Coconuts can jump...

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each of us is naked inside our clothes left as a tender rose as you suppose
an untimely gift so you get my drift in a center from the mind you got this
a tender swept deal...

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each of us is naked inside our clothes left as a tender rose as you suppose
an untimely gift so you get my drift in a center from the mind you got this
a tender swept deal...

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'The Energizer Battery' keeps going and going.                            ...

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I lived on a rolling green farm, and I had a love of astronomy;
And peered at skies of sleepless nighttime, so vast and starry.

It had for long been my hobby, and I had a powerful...

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You bite that apple!
Give it a go, put on a show
There is no shame
You said shame is a sham
And clams are happy
Do they hop or skip?
Tripping along the seafloor
Playing hopscotch
Eating numbers like cookies
Chips Ahoy!
Sleeve after...

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Migrants on the move from violence
their only possession
breath-space on a smuggler’s boat
secured with back-bent harvests 
in pretzel-bent systems
weight of crates of strawberries 
hoisted on hell-bent backs
just trying to reach Spanish-shores’-east 
from Moroccan beach with a...

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I tore the page from its binder and ripped it to pieces, not wanting to be associated with the scribbles I had left on the sheet. To call that abomination 
'art' would be an insult...

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I had a Dream with Dragon in it, yes, just this morning, yes, today!
And the Dreams that linger, that I recall, are usually bad, I’m wont to say… 
Haven't seen 'Day of The Trifids' in...

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Faces of the universe, why do you look so sad, faces of the universe I want you to feel glad. Faces of the universe your spirit is weeping, and your heart is reeling, what on...

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The Old Prospector, The Crazy Old Fool

Folks said that nasty fool is a damn old bat
times the bastard knows not where he is at
Rumor is he lives in shame for murdering a man
eats lizards and...

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