Tamim al- Barghouti

Tamim al- Barghouti Poems

Tamim al- Barghouti Biography

Tamim al-Barghouti was born in Cairo to an Egyptian mother, Radwa Ashour, and the Palestinian journalist and poet Mourid al-Barghouti, born in Deir Ghassanah near Ramallah on the West Bank. Tamim’s father was expelled from Egypt four months after his son’s birth, and not allowed to return until 1995. For eighteen years the father saw his son only during three-week winter and summer vacations in Budapest, where he was living in exile. Here Tamim learnt to speak Hungarian. To his education in Cairo he owes an excellent command of English and a knowledge of French and Italian. He obtained a B.A. in Political Science at Cairo University in 1999, and specialized in International Relations at Cairo’s American University, from which he graduated in 2001.)

The Best Poem Of Tamim al- Barghouti

Gift

My life is a gift
Given to me
On my zero birthday.
Today I pulled out the ribbon,
Unwrapped the Box
And found lots of things,
Ordinary,
But also wonder-full:
A watch of gold,
And of gold
Is every hour in one's life;
A jack-in-the box
Which makes you laugh
Or scares you to death, it depends;
Two beautiful baby-dolls,
The first a toy,
The second is not;
A prisoner's crown and the shackles of a king;
I also found a Jack of Spades
You turn him upside down
He stays the same;
I found books;
I found a long video tape labeled
‘Fifty years of conflict between the Zionists and the Arabs';
I found hell in an inkpot,
And heaven in an inkpot too;
I found an Arab horse on a race track
Covered with glue;
I found a stove with no flames;
At the bottom of the box,
I found a white card with my name on it,
The rest has not yet been written.

I did not know what to do with all these things!
Oh, God, thank you,
But why the trouble?

I put them all back in the box,
I closed it,
Wrapped it,
Tied the ribbon,
I threw it skywards and up it went,
The gift turned into a host of flying doves
That I will follow forever.
Why did I do that?
I really do not know!

Translation: Radwa Ashour

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