I Am From There


I'm from there.  And I have memories.  I was born like everyone 
	who has a mother
and a house full of windows.  I've got brothers and sisters, friends,
	and a prison with a cold skylight.
And I've got a wave snatched by the sea-gulls.  I've my special scene,
	an extra blae of grass
and a moon from the other side of speech.  I've also the provision of
	birds, and a immortal olive tree.
I came to this earth before swords dispatched a body and reduced it
	to a food table.
I'm from there.  I return the sky to its mother when the sky
implores her return,
and I cry so a returning cloud might know me.
I've learnt the vocabulary for the law court of blood, so as to
	subvert the rules.
I've acquired a language, and dislocated it to form just one word:
HOMELAND.
				Mahmoud Darwish,
				--translated from the Arabic by 
                Lena Jayyusi and Jeremy Reed.


Identity Card

Record!
I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?

Record!
I am an Arab
Employed with fellow workers at a quarry
I have eight children
I get them bread
Garments and books
from the rocks.
I do not supplicate charity at your doors
Nor do I belittle myself at the footsteps of your chamber
So will you be angry?

Record!
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged
My roots
Were entrenched before the birth of time
And before the opening of the eras
Before the pines, and the olive trees
And before the grass grew
My father descends from the family of the plow
Not from a privileged class
And my grandfather was a farmer
Neither well-bred, nor well-born!
Teaches me the pride of the sun
Before teaching me how to read
And my house is like a watchman's hut
Made of branches and cane
Are you satisfied with my status?
I have a name without a title!

Record!
I am an Arab
You have stolen the orchards of my ancestors
And the land which I cultivated
Along with my children
And you left nothing for us
Except for these rocks.
So will the State take them
As it has been said?!

Therefore!
Record on the top of the first page:
I do not hate people
Nor do I encroach
But if I become hungry
The usurper's flesh will be my food
Beware.
Beware.
Of my hunger
And my anger!