Long Mahmoud Poems

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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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 fledglings beneath a warm wing
and coos to them softly, unable...

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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 bread warming at dawn,
a woman haranguing men,
the poetry of Aeschylus,
love's...

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All the other musicians were so imprudent!
He was much wiser
He was much stronger
He was much more experienced...

They coveted him
Like the demons underground
Praying
Crying
Begging

To be the seraphs above
Living under the wings of God

He held his violin

Better than...

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New Zealand all over Sea and land,NEWS

On blood bath of Kiwi ever since her birth,1856 

On killing 50 lives settled to fight their bellies battle

“Land of long white cloud” mean New Zealand

How truth this? 50...

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Through a shivery night, everything had changed.
Our love – the kind of love everyone wishes for
had been burned – turned to ashes
it shatters me to see you going
it break me to be wandering around without...

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It happened in May, 1948
  Israel declared itself a new-old state

In hours it came under fierce attack
  From Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq

The four Arab states told their kin in Israel
  Leave...

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Once I purchased a book about 
Total Recall
It might be of 
Re-cap-i–tulation
Rum-i-nation
Or glorious immigrant stories….

But I failed to reach even 
a library spot…
Too high a ladder.
Your ablution will falsify
Your ebb and flood tides
In Between, O...

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A Talismanic Incantation
By Faleeha   Hassan
Translated by Mahmoud Abbas Masoud
I gathered the pores of my being
And came to perfume them with your own fragrance
Only to discover that you are an oleander -- a rosebay
While...

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You landed next to me while I was reading
Mahmoud Darwish in Arabic.
You said: "You really read this? Terrific."
I didn't know yet that this was leading

to a friendship right across all borders
to unite two hearts in...

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   I look around and frown 
     to see eighty-plus-year-old clowns
   stuttering and stumbling around
     the corridors of power... 

   From...

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If Ben-Gvir is a terrorist
    What is Bashar Assad?
  Whose hands are stained red
     from spilling fellow Syrians' blood

  If Ben-Gvir is a terrorist
  ...

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    Every single Arab death in Gaza   
      is attributable to HAMAS

    Aided and abetted by Iran 
    ...

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My country's media tells me there's a man with nuclear weapons over in Iran that I really need to fear.

The new Boogeyman in the sand is bad as Stalin, guilty as Hitler, named  Mahmoud...

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