On This Earth - by Mahmoud Darwish*

We have on this earth what makes life worth living: April's hesitation, the

aroma of bread

at dawn, a woman's point of view about men, the works of Aeschylus, the

beginning

of love, grass on a stone, mothers living on a flute's sigh and the invaders' fear

of memories.

We have on this earth what makes life worth living: the final days of

September, a woman

keeping her apricots ripe after forty, the hour of sunlight in prison, a cloud

reflecting a swarm

of creatures, the people's applause for those who face death with a smile,

a tyrant's fear of songs.

We have on this earth what makes life worth living: on this earth, the Lady

of Earth,

mother of all beginings and ends. She was called Palestine. Her name

later became

Palestine. My lady, because you are my lady, I deserve life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

from Unfortunately, It Was Paradise, translated and edited by Munir Akash and
Carolyn Forche.

* Mahmoud Darwish was born in the village of Birwe, in the district of Akka in upper Galilee, Palestine, on March 13, 1942. Six years later, in the 1967 war, the Israeli Army occupied and subsequently destroyed Birwe along with 416 other Palestinian villages.