Countries بلاد

Countries
Is the best place here?
Countries
Are the best smiles here?
Countries
Do the best pass by here ?
Countries
Is the best tree here?
Countries
Is the best hot shower here?
Countries
Are the best children clamoring here?
Countries
Are the best warm houses here?
Countries
Do the best pilgrims sojourn here?
Countries
Are the words intimate here?
Countries
Are the springs clear here?
Countries
Is there rest here?
Countries
Is our country here?

ALEXANDRIA- Aug 2008

بلاد
هل أحسن مكان هنا؟
بلاد
هل أحسن إبتسامات هنا؟
بلاد
هل أسن العابرون هنا؟
بلاد
هل أحسن شجرة هنا؟
بلاد
هل أحسن امرأة هنا؟
بلاد
هل أحسن حمام ساخن هنا؟
بلاد
هل أحسن صيحات أطفال هنا؟
بلاد
هل أحسن بيوت دافئة هنا؟
بلاد
هل أحسن الحجاج يمرون من هنا؟
بلاد
هل حميمة الكلمات هنا؟
بلاد
هل رائقة الجداول هنا؟
بلاد
هل راحة هنا؟
بلاد
هل راحة هنا؟
بلاد
هل بلادنا هنا؟

الأسكندرية أغسطس/ آب 2008

THE WAR 'S WITHIN ME الحرب بداخلي

العسكر بداخلي / الحرب بداخلي

ما الذي يحدث حولي ؟

أسمع صوت القصف ما عاد ليفزعني..
مللت أخبار الحرب الدائرة
لا أريد سماع المزيد.
الحرب بداخلي


العسكر..
العسكر يركضون
يجتمعون
يرفعون أسلحتهم
يرددون شعاراتهم الحربية
يرددون أناشيدهم الوطنية
العسكر بداخلي
ما عادوا ليبرحوا
يلاحقونني
أسمع خطواتهم تتبعني بشدة
ذاك النهار تجرأ أحدهم
وجذبني من ذراعي
إلتفت لأمنعه بقوة
لكني لم أجده
(إنه بداخلي)

و حين عدت في العشية
وجدتهم مفترشين سريري
حاولت أن أهدأ
أن أقبل بالأمر
ان أقتسم مع العسكر حجرتي
فلم أستطع
و حين صرخت إليهم
ليهموا بتركي
لأعرف أن أنام
لم يبالي منهم أحد
ولم يتركوا المكان
و حين اعدت صراخي
دق علي ّ جاري
ليفهم ما الأمر
لماذا أزعجه بصراخي؟
حاولت أن أبوح له
لكني خفت
فلعله حين لا يجد غيري بالحجرة
لا يصدق بأن
العسكر بداخلي

آب -بيروت 2006

أثناء حرب تموز (اسرائيل - حزب الله)2006

THE WAR 'S WITHIN ME
______________________
______________________
What's happening around me?
I hear the strike's sound, it terrifies me no more...
I'm bored of the ongoing news of war
I don't want to hear more
The war is within me
Soldiers...
Soldiers are running
Gathering
Raising their arms
Repeating their war slogans
Repeating their national anthems
Soldiers are within me
They are not leaving
They chase me
I hear their footsteps heavily following me
That morning one dared
to drag me by the arm
I turned around to stop him forcefully
But I didn't find him
(he's within me)
And when I returned in the evening
I found them invading my bed
I tried to calm down
To accept it
To share with the soldiers my room
But I couldn't
N when I yelled at them
to leave me
Not one of them cared
Neither did they leave
When I continued yelling
And yelling
My neighbor knocked on my door
To understand what was the matter
Why do I annoy him with my screams?
I tried to confide in him
but I was scared
If he finds no one but me in the room,
He won't believe that
The soldiers are within me.

Beirut August 2006
During the Israel/Hezbollah War

BORDERS WITHOUT CLOWNS

Borders without clowns
run my days.
no complaints.
they judge
search,
constrain,
ridicule,
cast out
n pause.

Clout without order-

slap
slam
-run my days-
they hurt
distort
n feel like pain.

Boarder without sponsor
no rest
for a visitor
bare
n hollow
deep but shallow
uncovered
dread
Borders without clowns
run my days

My Brothers did it not لم يفعلها اخوتي

My Brothers did it not لم يفعلها اخوتي

My Brothers did it not

It wasn’t
the wolf my father
it wasn’t
my brothers didn’t do it
either
that look
in his eyes
didn’t slap me
when I smiled
there was no envy
in their chests
when I arrived
there was not
but a stone
behind the well
or before me
the stone
did it
my father
no one else


Deep
was the well
deep
no water
but more stone
and width
permits the light to enter
but doesn’t permit
climbing
tried everything
for a day and two
for six complete weeks
for twelve months
for twelve years



In the dry sludge of the well
the food patience
and stone
clothing light
and darkness
friends mud
and thoughts
the market clouds
and wind
and the enemy
stone

لم يفعلها اخوتي

لم يكن الذئب يا أبي
لم يكن
لم يفعلها أيضا اخوتي
لم تصفعني تلك النظرة
من عينيه
حين ابتسمت
لم يكن هناك حقد في صدورهم
عندقدومي
لم يكن
لكن حجر
خلف البئر
أو أمامي
فعلها الحجر
يا أبي
لا أحد


عميقة
كانت البئر
عميقة
لاماء فيها
بل مزيد من الحجر
والاتساع
يسمح للضوء بالدخول
ولكن لايسمح بالصعود
حاولت كل محاولة
ليوم ويومين
لستة أسابيع كاملة
لاثني عشر شهرا

في وحل البئر المجفف
والطعام الصبر
الصبر
والحجر
الملبس الضوء
والظلام
الصديق الوحل
والفكر
السوق السحاب
والريح
العدو الحجر

THE AMERICAN COFFE CUP IS FINISHED

The American Coffee cup is finished

When you start your day
with the morning shower
and an SMS
saying
“let the meeting be at twelve
and a half,”
you start thinking
what appointment it would be (like)?

When you switch from the 6th of October road
onto the road to Alexandria
onto the right road
towards “The Smart Village”
Which smart one will you be meeting?

When you sit under the shadow of the air-condition, drying
what you thought were your sweat beads
with your blue handkerchief ,
and you find a woman coming towards you
in the waiting place,
you determine from her features that she’s from Mars,
or from one of the
Scandinavian countries
or from New Zealand,
or from any other superfiction place
inhabited with the kind people
that you recall from the stories of your childhood.

When she attentively listens to you
and offers help
you become completely convinced
that Christmas comes
in the beginning of the month of July
And that Santa resides
the modern digital colonies.

N when she invites you to your favorite coffee
you feel that the universe takes on a new round
that starts also in July
and, may be,
never ends

When she agrees that you take a photo of her
with the excuse of
documenting the meeting in the job blog
You feel that you hold the evidence
that divides
between
the reality and imagination
or that links between
the fairy tales planets
and the planet of The Smart Village

The picture was the evidence that this meeting had occurred
Responding to all these fears
“We don’t have anyone with these features working here.”
“But I had met her
this is the Styrofoam cup
she invited me to drink coffee in."



Cairo 2008

MY HOLY POPHETESS

MY HOLY PROPHETESS


I’m here I am here,
My Holy Prophetess

in a "Tax"- I lost my syntax.

(That’s how we call Taxis here in my city)

On my city- mess,
Injuries injure

aren't you the new
mess- -enger

to my city.
to my city syn- -thesis.

don't dread my rudeness,
My Holy Prophetess and my native brothers’.

Mine might be disparate,
if compared to them.


(always) counted myself

a gentle one,

though desperate quite fun.


And being
the best (do confess)


still


I try but in vain
to mix with the locals
lessen Prophetesses
and be a humble one

يجلس القرفصاء

تقلب

على قارعة الطريق
يجلس القرفصاء
و يضع رأسه بين يديه
في انحناء

و بين الحين و الحين
يسند ظهره للخلف
و يرفع عينيه باتجاه السماء.

ويتكرر هذا المشهد كثيراً
مع طفيف من الاختلافات؛
كأن يبتسم و رأسه بين يديه
أو تلمع عينيه بدمعة دفينة
أو يرفع وجهه ضاحكاً مزهواً
قلبه خائف
قلبه ثابت
قلبه مرتاب

إنه يعاني التقلب
تضرب ضلوعه الأمواج
و لا يعرف متى سترفع لعنة البحر عنه
و ينتهي معها هذا العذاب


بيروت آب 2006