-1-
Why, oh Lord,
did you let my heart burn
And darken?
And none but you, oh Lord,
Has ever dwelt in my heart.
Never have you wounded it
With the thorns of hatred,
Nor have you spread the dust
Of the earth upon its cheeks.
My heart is a homeland planted with love.
It is a shame, oh Lord,
That a homeland should be destroyed.
-2-
If you ever heard from me,
Even a small word that hurt you...
Damn it,
I was a little bit on the wound, I bit it
And I vowed. I knelt and prayed
And I started glorifying your name and singing
So that you could expel people
Who are in agreement
To eliminate a poor and helpless people
They close their eyes in the name of religion
In the name of Arabism, gold, and gasoline
In the name of the dollar and everything, there are hypocrites
In the name of sovereignty
And civilization and certainty
In the name of justice.
In the name of all the deprived
In the name of the cause.
In the name of displaced people
And like a watermelon on a knife
They slaughter him on his doorstep
And they distribute his clothes
Despite his wound and his suffering
He kneels and says to you:
"O Lord of the universe
This is how you have decreed
And we are content with your judgment
This is how you have ordained it
And we are the obedient servants
And from whom else but you,
Tell us, from whom else?
Do we seek help from, O Lord?!"
-3-
By the heavens and the earth,
They're deceived
And like herds being led
By men they call men of religion
By the lying, deceitful politicians
They sold our blood for millions
And canned our flesh like cattle
Like tuna and sardines
And we,
Whom you forced to be created as humans
Because of our fear of the Day of Judgment
We bow down before you:
"Is it reasonable that they have an excuse?
Is it reasonable?
Grant them forgiveness, O Lord?!"
-4-
.. And what can I tell you,
O Lord, about Beirut?
They stole its shops
And demolished its buildings
And they prayed
And fasted for a month until it died
But it's impossible for it to die
The city that is allowed to speak
And whenever it wants to laugh and cry
And raise its hands to the sky
And complain
In the East.
Stomping on its nose Tyrant
In the East...
He prepared a coffin for all its inhabitants!
-5-
Beirut... It is the wedding
and the bride and groom
And it is the drum and the flute
Were it not for its nights of dancing,
There would be no
Nor would a belly and waist sway
And how joy stays awake on its shores
Conversing with the waves of the sea
And if the moon is ever bored
And feels a little bit of sorrow
It goes down to pick flowers from a garden
Sleeping on the bank of a river
And sits composing
About a mountain Lebanon
The Sweetest Poems.
-6-
Beirut. Oh Beirut.
Oh, city adorned.
And lacking nothing in adornment
For nineteen years
I've been dreaming of you at night
Your words are written on my forehead
Live my life in separation and woe
Drink my tears and eat my years?!
-7-
Beirut... Oh Beirut... I miss you
And I wouldn't care
If you were destroyed
And I wouldn't care
If they displaced your people
And slaughtered your child
Before your very eyes
What matters to me is that you remain
Steadfast in your faith
In your cedars,
In your Sannine,
In your Lebanon
And in all your religions
And don't despair
If you despair
It will be a fatal blow to us
It will extinguish our hope
And the light of our eyes...
-8-
What can I tell you
About a young man named "South"?
About a young man as dark as the basil leaves
About a young man like no other,
The likes of whom have never been created
They beat him a million times
And they flog him a million times
And they create from him
A thousand "crucified" ones!
What can I tell you, O Lord, O Almighty?
About the cruelty of the infidels
They sealed his memory
With the name "Wrathful"
And wrote two small sentences on his chest:
"He is condemned to see destruction
With his own eyes,
And to sow and plant wars on all his lands
So that if he is hungry and thirsty, O Lord
He is forbidden to drink anything
But blood and fire
And he is forbidden to wear anything
But humiliation and shame!"
-9-
I knocked on your door
For years and years
And you wouldn't hear me
I started screaming like the cries of a fetus
Coming against its will
In a world...
It's hard to benefit from it
In a world...
Whose inhabitants have perished
And gone mad
And you can no longer say:
These are oppressed
These are Christians...
And some of them are Muslims
And these are scattered, dispersed Jews
And these are Tatars
These are Nawars
These a group of monotheists
All of them, O Lord, are unjust
All of them are tyrants
They don't believe in the Gospel
They don't believe in the Quran
Not even in the Torah
And they don't consider the Day of Judgment!
-10-
I am hopeless about my situation,
I am hopeless even unto death
And my voice is hoarse
I scream among these deaf people
Perhaps someone will hear my scream
Someone still believes in you wholeheartedly.
Extend my hand and clasp his
And everything you desire, O Lord
I will carry it out with sacrifice and faith
On one condition...
Forgive me if I stipulate
That it serves the interest of Lebanon...
**
