Long Unendurable Poems

Southern Icarus
by Michael R. Burch

Windborne, lover of heights,
unspooled from the truck’s wildly lurching embrace,
you climb, skittish kite...

What do you know of the world’s despair,
gliding in vast solitariness there,
so that all that remains is to
fall?

Only a...

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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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Ing/ed

He was:
timed

lying down
waiting
braving it, the pain, invincible
grimacing
sweating
hedging-his bets
not panicking-yet
pacing
gasping
falling
still
breathless
void
stopped
still
heavy
rock
board
immoveable
stared at
no power
darkness
panic
screaming
doors open 
battery - dead
agog
chaos
not alive
taken
transported
sirens
trolley dash
assessed intubated injected
prodded
pulse
adrenalin- more and more
faint heart:beats
monitors
sounds and uniforms, drinks and heat on the corridor
anticipation, but we all know...

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"If we allow a deranged mind to control the course of human destiny,

         then we become executioners in the annihilation of human dignity"

    ...

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When the Loss is Ineffable!
By Jean Bosco SIBOMANA

Win-lose game occurs in many situations
And bargainers made it a standard saying
When involved in various negotiations
To come up with a common understanding 

We lose property and it seems...

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5/10/13
I’m the victim…
Are you the predator?
I feel hurt – 
I am oversensitive
I am an unstable table
The pain’s TOO unbearable
Intolerable… 
Unendurable…
Am I your bull’s eye? 
Are you the strong, enduring one?

You allured me into your trap…
And...

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Gratitude
--------

desperate madness, and aching sadness once held me tight
now, unexplainable memories, NOT unendurable, that's right
time went on, and beautiful love shone through
between quivering me, and radiant you

now, these eyes see quite a bit clearer
shadows faded...

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A knee-Imprisoning Marsh 
And Labor-Demanding Field;
Not agriculturally harsh
But planters forcing to fitness wield …

Rice farmers decide to be rude,
A hundred in an ugly mood.
“Blast Mr. President for lowering prices! 
He shall helpless watch be as...

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Close to a scandalous ten thousand,
A reproach to the late Reverend Townsend;
All with their advertising megaphones,
And big dreams-nursing microphones …

In my town of domicile
With odds one can’t reconcile
Which I had some time walked miles
With my...

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STILL SOLITUDE 
                                ...

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Does your heart ever ache?
When,

you realise unavailing efforts make you drain.
you see how helpless you are in pain.

you think there is no escape but death .
you realise death is not an escape.
you know you have...

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Utterances offering the wrong ideas
Like murder-planning spears:
To their recipient an enough sting
But to the source songs to freely sing

The seventy-two teeth of crocodile,
Together jammed and survival is for a while;
Participating voices ascending mountain tops
Like they...

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How can a mere mortal poet
Ever truly capture
In mere mortal words
The true nature of love?
How to describe the sensations
That go whirling through the funnel
Of one's being like a vortex,
Or the deep-rooted primal feelings
That shake mere...

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This old love is unendurable:
its bough breaks in the breeze;
its frosted buds crack and splinter;
it's a heart stitched to a razor sleeve;
its wrists split and bleed and stain
like a shadow escaping whilst being
illuminated by the...

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