Mahmoud Darwish Poems

This land gives us
all that makes life worth living:
April's blushing advances,
the aroma of bread at dawn,
a woman's haranguing of men,
the poetry of Aeschylus,
...

I will slog over this endless road to its end.
Until my heart stops, I will slog over this endless, endless road
...

The enemy who drinks tea in our hovel
has a horse in smoke, a daughter with
...

And we have countries without borders, like our idea
of the unknown, narrow and wide - countries whose maps
...

The Earth is closing on us
pushing us through the last passage
...

Rome is skin to us as if imposed fate
Its name is branded on our backs yet
As prisoners' numbers and scourges that's Rome
Rome dismantles our brands under her want
...

Wait for her with an azure cup.
Wait for her in the evening at the spring, among perfumed roses.
...

So, we are who we are, as the Mississippi flows,
and what remains from yesterday is still ours-
but the color of the sky has changed,
the sea to the East has changed.
...

To our land,
and it is the one near the word of god,
a ceiling of clouds
To our land,
...

Still there is on thy saucers remains of honey
Kick out the flies so that you can protect the honey
Still there is on their vines clusters of grapes
O, guarders of vines, drive foxes out,
...