Concert: An Alternate Explanation Of The Dead Sea Scrolls Poem by Ali Ahmad Said Esber

The Sea of Lot, The Sea of Sodom and Gomorrah, The Dead Lake, The Upside Down Lake, The Stinking Lake, these are other names for the Dead Sea.
Encyclopedia Islamica
1.
Here,
out of the horizon's fleece,
a new gown is being sewn.
Celebrate this birth,
mix the incense and musk with the dust of the dead,
recite the names of the dead by the cemetery gates,
tell the angels to bring chairs to seat the guests,
do not forget to decorate the roads with banners and streamers.

2.
Birds of iron are born
to embrace the distances,
chains are born to choke the throats of light.

3.
History strips off his blood-smeared helmet
and tosses it into the Upside-Down Lake.
Language flings its nets in the air
to catch fish that only it can imagine:
the fish are born, die, and rise again.

4.
Days that never end
swim in the Upside-Down Lake:
upside-down days like their lake.

5.
The Upside-Down Lake:
Fire/Water
in a bowl.

6.
A sea without life or waves,
a sea that fell
into the trap of words.

7.
No one dares to touch that water,
a water where the forests of meaning are set ablaze:
They said:
In each drop of water
we planted a word.
They said:
We used to store our hopes and dreams
in amphorae to age them.
They said:
The gates of heaven are for those who wish them,
but to us belongs the volition of the earth.
They said:
We used to scream when we were asleep
to prove to our eyelids that reality
is nothing except our steps.
They said:
Look at what words do here.
They wear slippers
made of emerald and sapphire
and stay put to guard heaven's gates.

Translation: 2013, Khaled Mattawa