Tawfik Zayyad
 

Here We Stay translated by Adib S. Kawar As if twenty impossibles we are In Al-Lid, Ar-Ramleh and the Galilee Here … on your chests, staying as a wall Remaining we are In your throats Like a piece of glass, like cactus And in your eyes A storm of fire Here … on your chests, staying as a wall* Remaining we are Hungry we get … naked … we challenge … Chant poems Fill the street with angry demonstrations Fill prisons with pride Produce children … a revolting generation … after generation As if twenty impossibles we are In Al-Lid, Ar-Ramleh and the Galilee *** Plant ideas, like yeast in dough The coldness of the Galilee in our nerves Live coal … hell in our hearts If thirsty we get rocks we squeeze If hungry we get soil we eat … and we never leave Our redolent blood we don’t spare … We don’t spare … we don’t spare … Here we have a past … A present … And a future     *Had the poet lived, he would have said “Like your separation wall"     Links http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAG7pr8g0WA Mahmoud Darwish - Baqa le Tawfeek Zayad  Uploaded by Halfaouine on Feb 25, 2008 http://www.thehypertexts.com/Tawfik%20Zayyad% 20Tawfiq%20Ziad%20Palestinian%20Nakba%20 Poet%20Poetry%20Picture%20Bio.htm Page on Tawfik Zayyad that forms part of the HYPERTEXTS published online by the American poet Michael R. Burch The above translation by Adib S. Kawar is taken from this webpage. Check also: http://www.thehypertexts.com/Holocaust%20Poetry%20Index.htm Website created by the poet Michael R. Burch http://www.pflp-info.de/palastina/taufik-zayad PFLP info.de webpage on Tawfik Zayyad (text in German) http://palestineonly.net/de/kultur/Dichtern/taufik/index.htm Palestineonly.net page on Tawfik Zayyad (text in German) Check also the article on "Tawfiq Ziad" in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawfiq_Ziad

Here We Shall Stay As though we were twenty impossibilities In Lod, Ramla, and Galilee Here we shall stay like a brick wall upon your chest and in your throat Like a splinter of glass, like spiky cactus And in your eyes A chaos of fire. Here we shall stay Like a wall upon your chest Washing dishes in idle, buzzing bars Pouring drinks for our overlords Scrubbing floors in blackened kitchens To snatch a crumb for our children From between your blue fangs. Here we shall stay A hard wall on your chest. We hunger Have no clothes We defy Sing our songs Sweep the sick streets with our angry dances Saturate the prisons with dignity and pride Keep on making children One revolutionary generation After another As though we were twenty impossibilities In Lydda, Ramla, and Galilee! Here we shall stay. Do your worst. We guard the shade Of olive and fig. We blend ideas Like yeast in dough. Our nerves are packed with ice And hellfire warms our heart. If we get thirsty We'll squeeze the rocks. If we get hungry We'll eat dirt And never leave. Our blood is pure But we shall not hoard it. Our past lies before us Our present inside us Our future on our backs. As though we were twenty impossibilities In Lydda, Ramla and Galilee O living roots hold fast And--still--reach deep in the earth. It is better for the oppressor To correct his accounts Before the pages riffle back "To every deed..."--listen To what the Book says.     from: Nakba Eyewitnesses,  edited by Liam Morgan and Alison Morris pp.7-8

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