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    You are at:Home»ONE MAN, ONE VOTE

    ONE MAN, ONE VOTE

    0
    By سلمان مصالحة on 7 February 2009 Uncategorized

    From fragments of children in a shadeforsaken camp

    Concentrated especially for infant rest, there beyond the separation fence,

    To anxiety victims who trod protected avenues to the local

    Grocery that has declared a seasonal sale

    Of aged tears: For every hundred you give to the neighbors, get

    One tear for yourself, for free,

    *

    From the heart that is steeled towards the heart that is stilled and a fate that is sealed

    On heaps of nameless dreams, to another package of deterrence

    At a bargain price, obtained by the minister in charge

    Of subsidized targets, once more,

    *

    From the myriad flag colors to the myriad word colors spilled

    At streetsides in orange, red, white and blue,

    To children’s blood smeared on clods of fertile earth, like

    Death, in the East,

    *

    From wrinkles of clouds that have retreated from the galloping sun

    Disengaged from the wayward, proud, generous and fierce horizon,

    To the silence hovering over the graves of the children of this land

    Who grew to the glory of the homeland, Israel-Palestine,

    All around,

    *

    Into the back yard I will again cast one last

    Polished and thoroughly perplexed glance.

    And when it returns it will recount its adventures to my heart,

    Like a dovecote of soul. This is the tree, under which you have sat,

    That has stripped off its leaves and is no longer the refuge

    That shaded from the heat. It is the wind that has forgotten

    To bring its clouds to this land and will not return to play in

    The clotheslines readied on the balcony for a winter

    To come – nu, let it come! – It is the mountain

    That for years has maintained a green face, on its summit

    A yellowing torch that is fruitless and fading.

    *

    And if so, who will utter in public the prayer of a

    Man to the heart of impervious Heaven? Till when

    Will the cry in the womb of the earth that is teeming

    And grieving over this yellow evil still be restrained?

    *

    Nonetheless, if you’d like an enlightened tale, to shine

    A light unto the nations, there is one, only one, who

    Knows how to ease all at once the muscles

    Of bleakness gripping this drought-stricken land.

    *

    And if this is the case when you set out to seek

    The one who will light a fine bonfire to shine in the

    Ruined field, for a robbers’ romp, just write down one

    Commandment, one thought. Or write, in huge letters, the

    Following message onto the wall:

    Only Salman who diligently and in colloquial

    Biblical language digs more new graves

    Is the man who properly understands

    Both Arabic and Hebrew.

    For Salman, gentlemen, is

    Not a poet, a leader.

    February, 2008

    Translated by Vivian Eden

    http://salmaghari-en.blogspot.com/2009/02/one-man-one-vote.html

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