Tawfiq Zayyad Poems

In Lidda, in Ramla, in the Galilee,
we shall remain
like a wall upon your chest,
and in your throat
like a shrad of glass,
a cactus thron,
...

It would be a thousand times easier for you
to lead an elephant through the eye of a needle
...

'I call to you all:
I take your hand and hold it tightly.
...

I shall carve my story and the chapters of my tragedy,
I shall carve my sighs
On my grove and on the tombs of my dead;
......I shall carve the number of each deed
...

with my teeth I'll protect
every inch of my homeland
...

The earth is turning
the wheel of history is turning
...

I never carried a rifle
On my shoulder
Or pulled a trigger.
All I have
...

When they ran over her,
the mulberry tree said:
'Do what you wish,
but remember
...

But they know that my country
has known a thousand conquerors
and they know
that the thousand
...